Doremus and the Tuck School of Business Join Forces
to Create Communications Effectiveness Index

Connecting Brands With Customers: Who’s Doing It Well.

Many studies have ranked the brand power of companies, but to date no research has been conducted identifying what are the most important messaging attributes from a customer point of view and linked them to actual buyer behavior. Doremus, in partnership with professors at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, has just completed a study which addresses this critical interrelationship. Key findings include:

1. There are eight key attributes that drive effective communications
2. While these eight attributes are consistent across multiple industries, the rank order or importance for each of these attributes differ materially, industry to industry
3. The choice of channels for communication also impacts communications effectiveness. Again, preferred channels differ materially, industry to industry
4. By understanding the correct priorities of messaging attributes coupled with channel selection, you can have meaningful impact on buying behavior

Nine industries were chosen for the study that all represent a broad cross-section of the economy and all sell finished products to an end user.

Business decision-makers and consumers were asked to recall and rate communications across all eight attributes. Then they were asked to what degree these communications would actually influence buying behavior in terms of wanting to find out more about the company’s product, buy it, or recommend it to others.

In terms of overall persuasion scores, there was very little homogeneity across the nine industries and as the chart below suggests, within industries some companies were clearly more adept at hitting the right communication chords than their competitors.

Industries perform differently: Average Persuasion Scores
(each bar represents a single company)

What this study means for you: Never has the communication landscape been more complex, and never has the pressure to link communications efforts to true behavior changes been greater. Now there are tools to help companies understand this complex environment and how changes in communication behavior can increase the effectiveness of their programs.

To learn more about how you fared against your competitive set, please contact Matt Broom, President of International, at 212-366-3079 or mbroom@doremus.com.