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Figure 1 plots the popularity of the brands against their unpopularity. The vertical Y-axis indicates the percentage of Invitations (“likes”) a brand had received, whereas the horizontal X-axis shows the number of un-invitations (“dislikes”) a brand received, not to join the CNY celebrations.
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Interesting survey! Who will You Invited for CNY Open House? 462 respondents
pick brands like Lazada, Grab, Maybank, Watson, Tesco, Eu Yan Sang and Nescafe
to be the preferred brands for their CNY celebration.
The pandemic stricken
Chinese New Year celebrations were muted as many families
were not able to completely reunite. As a result, the wish to be together resonated
louder than ever amid the people. Many brands wanted to echo these sentiments,
and as such their CNY ads showed us of how it is to celebrate together, while
reminding us of the good times when the entire family was together. These memories
and brand stories went viral and were widely shared on social media news walls,
individual stories, and of course through traditional media channels like TV
commercials.
“With consumers spending more time online but with limited attention
spans, brands that focus on capturing the ‘mind space’ of the consumer will be
the ones that grow faster,” said Julie Ng, Researcher & Co-Founder of
Vase.ai.
All the more, these commercials were instrumental in promoting the CNY celebrative
spirit. It looked as if the brands themselves, were inviting us to their own
CNY open houses.
Asia School of Business and market research company Vase.ai were curious
to see whether people would think of offering a counter-invitation: Should
brands became persons, would they be invited to join our CNY open house
celebrations?
In opening this question, Vase.ai conducted a large-scale study among
462 ethnic-Chinese Malaysians. The study presented a choice of 29 brands that
heavily advertised during the last month in conjunction with CNY to this
representative sample.
The questions posed to the pool were:
“If these brands were persons, which brands
would be invited to your CNY open house? And which ones would not be?”
Asking people to view brands as a person is a very common practice, the
company notes. Consumers often attribute human features to brands on a daily
basis. Many people project selected personality characteristics on the brands
they are familiar with and favour. As an example, the car brand Volvo projects a
responsible, trustworthy, reliable, and a family-man personality.
The Twelve Invited brands:
This study uncovered that on average, a brand receives a CNY open house
invitation from 27% Chinese Malaysian consumers. Some brands are more welcomed
than others.
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| Three brands – McDonalds, KFC and Shopee – made the most wanted guest at CNY open houses. |
3 Most Invited Brands –
McDonalds, KFC and Shopee
Three brands – McDonalds, KFC and Shopee – made the most wanted guest at
CNY open houses. As the nation’s favourite cousins, they won over a 50% popularity
vote.
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| The nine brands that follow in getting invitations from 30% or more from the people: Foodpanda, Lazada, Grab, Maybank, Watson, Tesco, Eu Yan Sang, Nescafe, and Yakult. |
Followed by 9 Invited
Brands
The nine brands that follow in getting invitations from 30% or more from
the people, but not by a majority are “good family friends”: Foodpanda, Lazada,
Grab, Maybank, Watson, Tesco, Eu Yan Sang, Nescafe, and Yakult.
The Nine Un-invited brands
Six of the 29 brands included in the study were grouped in those that
would not receive invitations. For one of the brands that were categorised as a
non-invite, there was an obvious reason: it is a strong-branded medicine.
Generally, it is considered inauspicious to welcome medication to a CNY open
house as it may introduce bad luck.
A fourth group consists of three brands with a certain “double-bind.”
The relationship is a mix of positivity and negativity. For instance people are
uncertain if they should invite brands of an insurance company, an airlines,
and an energy company. In a relational sense, “it’s complicated” as the number
of CNY open house invitations is as large as the number of non-invites.
“No happy new year for brands that are ignored. A brand caught in the
silent and uneventful zone of indifference may have a hard time to survive a
roller-coaster year like 2021.” Said Willem Smit, Assistant Professor of
Marketing at Asia School of Business and International Faculty Fellow at MIT Sloan.
The Eight Brands in the “Danger Zone of Indifference”
This study grouped a fifth group of brands – those that people don’t really care about. Eight
brands were classified as those that do not have a significant connection with
the people, and are not even important enough to be disliked.
Being placed in the “Zone of indifference”
category would be a nightmare scenario for the marketer, as there is no
existing cloud to start a conversation and sharpen the brands’ positioning.
It means it’s all the way back to the drawing board: thinking of the
ideal target audience and crafting a better value proposition. Being in the
category also means they are way below most people’s radar and results in an
even worse start for them this year. There is no consolation for brands in the
Zone of Indifference as it means hard work – if not the end is near, and they
might well be unlikely to be part of the CNY celebrations in 2022.
Who will you invite to your CNY Open House? Gong Xi Fa Cai! Stay Health, Stay Well!
Full report can be found on https://vase.ai/resources/brands-should-stay-out-of-the-danger-zone-of-indifference/
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