Why Amazon Tops the Charts in MBLM's Brand Intimacy Study

According to John Bishop, president of The Myers Report at MediaVillage, ritual and nostalgia are two of the biggest influences on brand intimacy. It is the aspect of ritual, he believes, that played into the online retail giant dethroning Disney and Apple. "Brands that have become a ritual in consumers' lives [are] familiar and automatic choices," Bishop says, "and less likely to be displaced by less familiar options." That sense of familiarity helps build emotional connections, inspires consumers to return, and results in habit-forming brands such as Amazon outperforming their competitors.

Human behavior expert David Allison, founder of Valuegraphics, reacted with a note of caution. "Amazon dominating a metric like brand intimacy is unsurprising when you look at the vast array of functionality it has created," he says. "The company pushes so many buttons for so many people, it can't help but trigger all kinds of emotions, such as intimacy, joy, relief, gratitude, and so on."

Allison points out that, despite its current popularity, the e-commerce giant needs to be very, very careful. "As more and more people come to rely on a company, it becomes more susceptible to fickle emotional whims," he asserts. "A company must dig deeper and align itself with the fundamental values of its customers to reduce risk. How people feel will change, whereas what they care about will remain the same."

Those values-based emotional connections are integral to the pull of Disney and Apple, which rank second and third in 2020, respectively. These two giants of media and technology have maintained a surefire way to capture the hearts and eyes of consumers everywhere: nostalgia. Bishop emphasizes the importance of nostalgic brands: "Nostalgia plays a significant role in brand selection, given the strong positive feelings that they tend to conjure." While Disney takes full advantage of its nostalgia factor through its streaming platform offerings, Apple has steadily built and maintained a positive reputation over the years, sparking an emotional connection with long-term users.

The Myers Report recently uncovered similar findings through its Brand Equity Study (Q4 2019), which assessed 100 media publishers to determine their Media Brand Reputation Score. From this study, Bishop explains, MediaVillage was able to determine the two most important factors in driving consumers' love of media brands: an ability to thrive in the future and a strong emotional connection with those brands. "Consumers want to know that the brands they invest their time, energy, and money in will be around in the long-run," says Bishop. "Likewise, a positive emotional association with a brand confirms a good choice on the part of consumers."

With both studies in mind, Bishop thinks that long-term consistency will make a world of a difference for brands looking to forge emotional connections with consumers. "Whether planting seeds of nostalgia over time or becoming a part of consumers' daily routine, brand building is a long-term cultivation, rather than a short-term sprout." It'll be fascinating to see which brands will continue to be perennial favorites.

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet.