LBrands are under pressure and must constantly pursue their efforts to remain profitable. In this context, the emphasis on loyalty is more important than ever. But it is not so straightforward. McKinsey confirms this in his famous study The Consumer Decision Journey (2009): The loyalty challenge begins with the purchase itself. To reinforce loyalty and the financial advantages that accompany it, CapGemini, in The Key to Loyalty (2017), confirms that continued investment in the emotional connection is decisive.

Investing in communication that stimulates the emotional connection is therefore profitable: Relation-based marketing has a real impact on client loyalty. However, until now there was no coherent and actionable way of measuring the relation-based brand value and highlighting the elements that it includes. For the first time in our country, Ipsos, at bpost’s initiative, carried out a large-scale survey on the relationship between brands and clients across nine separate sectors.

This survey goes right to the heart of client-brand relations. It delves into their attitudes and expectations, not in relation to rational aspects (price, product quality), but in relation to aspects that create a relational and emotional connection. The survey concentrates on the heart of the relationship, where irrational decisions are often made. ‘The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.’ »

The Pulse Score is the weighted average of evaluations for each driver by importance of those drivers in the respondent’s view. A score of 100 would indicate a perfect evaluation across all drivers. The brands studied obtained Pulse Scores between 22 and 63. A score of 50 is a good start but leaves room for improvement in developing client relations.

The Pulse Gap per driver is the arithmetic difference between the evaluation score and the importance score for each driver. The lower the score, the higher the gap between expectations and reality. Clearly a case where action is necessary.

A qualitative survey was carried out among 40 people. It was this survey that led to validation of the 16 emotional drivers. The Pulse Survey dealt solely with the relation-based drivers that could influence the brand relationship. It did not consider the rational aspects (price competition, points system, special offers, etc.), often covered by other surveys.

Different touch points can help to establish client relations: the shop, the sales staff or other contacts. The relationship is often created through campaigns that spark a certain feeling. But the strength of the relationship is also present on specific occasions or at specific times. The Pulse Survey highlights the connection between these communication opportunities and studies the influence that they have on the brand relationship. Through addressed or unaddressed mail, In-Home Advertising brings your brand into the heart of the home. It is more widely welcomed for its relevance, emotional value and high conversion potential and has a prominent place in your relation-based media mix.

Pulse Activation is an index that illustrates how easy it is to influence a relational driver through special occasions. The average score being 100, the more the driver score is above 100, the easier it will be to have an influence on it. The opposite is true for scores below 100.

Yes, at the time of the survey, respondents replied as brand clients.

The nine sectors studied were banking, insurance, cars, telecoms, supermarkets, energy, retail fashion, home and DIY.

Contact your account manager. Currently, we have the results for 40 major brands. In a few weeks’ time, we will have the results for roughly 100 brands in nine different sectors.