UTA Brand Studio Launches First-Ever Brand Dependence™ Index as Key Predictor of a Brand’s Influence and Potential | Business Wire →

“In the consumer electronics list released today, Samsung had the highest Brand Dependence Intensity score and Microsoft had the highest Brand Dependence Impact score, which adjusts scores for national levels of brand familiarity. The core Intensity score measures how much people are dependent on, or “cannot live without,” a brand. A brand can potentially score up to 100 points for complete attachment or -100 points for complete aversion. A majority of survey respondents gave Microsoft a high brand-self connection score, agreeing with statements such as “this brand is part of who I am.” Apple ranked fifth on the index, with an Intensity score of 18 and an Impact score of 15. Googlesurpassed Apple slightly with an Impact score of 19 and an Intensity score of 18.

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Three key factors that influence a Brand Dependence score are enrichment, enticement and enablement. All three drivers have been proven in previous rounds of research to affect a brand’s overall attachment score, but enrichment—or how much a brand symbolically expresses the identity of the individual—has been proven to be the most impactful of the 3. Apple scored very high on enticement (which reflects the aesthetics and experience of the brand) but lagged on enrichment, which may explain why recent Apple advertising has shifted away from demonstrations of product functionality and instead into values, as it did with its recent “Misunderstood” holiday commercial featuring a teenage boy’s surprising contribution to his family.

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Unlike traditional ways of measuring brand strength, Brand Dependence™ is measured on the basis of the following two factors: (1) how close (far) a brand is to (from) consumers themselves, and (2) how often and naturally thoughts about a brand come to their mind. These two factors are, in turn, determined by how much consumers see a brand as being like themselves, sharing their values and belief systems, the degree to which they believe a brand is indispensable (or useless) in their lives, and how pleasing it is to their senses. People who are attached to a brand (a high BD score) are more likely to purchase and repurchase products and services than people who merely say they “like” or “prefer” a brand.

The next steps for the Brand Dependence Index will be a custom offering to clients who want to score their own brands as well as interpret the core drivers behind the score.”