What Is Brand EQ in Advertising? (Archive, 2021)

Recorded in January 2021 during Simon's s.media agency era — a team compilation with several s.media presenters, closing with Simon. Published as part of a dated historical record.

What is EQ, and can a brand have one?

Everyone knows what IQ is — the way we measure human intelligence. But what is EQ? The term was first used in the 1960s by psychologists to map out the specific traits that combine to create emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. What was also found is that EQ isn't purely innate — it can be learned and developed. The interesting question for marketers: certain brands mirror those very human qualities, so how high is their emotional intelligence?

Who were the top EQ brands of 2020?

The list, from a study conducted in the early months of 2020 with 10,000 participants across the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, China and beyond: Google, Microsoft, Samsung, adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Nivea, Visa, Apple, Panasonic, Philips, Netflix, Kellogg's, Mercedes-Benz, IKEA, McDonald's, Oreo, Mastercard and Nespresso. Participants rated the brands on the five qualities of EQ.

What you notice is that the majority are technology brands, with Google and Microsoft at the top — which comes as no surprise, given that most of 2020 was spent indoors during the pandemic, with people relying on virtual contact, online shopping and streaming.

Classic brands versus experience brands — what's the difference?

The study highlighted two archetypes. Classic brands clustered in automotive, food and drink, and finance. They sell on self-awareness and the emotions around their brand message, with plenty of heritage to draw on, and they're favoured by older age groups who grew up with them — but they fail on being reactive and impulsive to what customers want. The example used was Mercedes, whose investment in autonomous driving wasn't well received: the study showed the gap between their empathy and their self-awareness was nearly three times that of other brands.

Experience brands sit mainly in technology and retail, geared around customer experience and armed with mountains of primary data, so they can hone in on what the customer wants now and next. But with that much data, the study raised the obvious question of self-regulation and honesty — and with social media giants being clamped down on, that tension is only going to grow. Neither archetype is off the hook: classic brands' lack of responsiveness hurts how they're received, and there's plenty each can learn from the other.

What do the great rivalries show?

Coca-Cola versus Pepsi first: Coca-Cola ranked higher on brand EQ across all five areas — no great surprise given how much longer they've been at it. Consistency did the work. The "Share a Coke" campaign started in Australia and went global on the strength of its success: one campaign, consistent everywhere, emotionally connecting with the audience because everyone could get a bottle with their own name on it.

Nike versus adidas is closer. adidas remained the top sports brand for emotional intelligence, but Nike has closed the gap over two years — dominating English-speaking countries and Japan while adidas holds continental Europe and China. A key factor was the Air Jordan sub-brand: "The Last Dance" documentary was a massive success, pulling in new fans of Nike and the Jordan brand off the back of Michael Jordan's legendary status, and Nike's Liverpool sponsorship landed just as the club peaked. adidas had a steady year and still leads on legacy and fan-focused campaigns — but the rivalry is only getting closer.

Do you have to have high EQ to win?

Two underperformers are worth naming: in a list of the top 50, Facebook came 41st, and Uber came bottom. Both are very successful companies — in fact both did better during the pandemic than most. They're the rule-breakers. So do you need high EQ? It's certainly better if you do, and your odds are in your favour with it — but a low score doesn't put you out of the game.

What should you actually take from this?

Something close to my heart is emotions and empathy in advertising — and YouTube is a great, authentic platform for building a brand's emotional connection with its customer base. What's really interesting in these reports: while brands deliver on motivating their customers and score well on social skills, empathy comes out at the same low rank as self-regulation. Think about that — people see brands as not really understanding them or talking to them the way they want to be talked to, to the same degree that tech brands are seen as poor self-regulators.

I've done a lot of talks recently about making sure your propositions aren't just value-led or sales-led, but emotional and empathetic. This report is quite shocking — and I'm personally quite pleased about it, because it's something I bang on about all the time. Consider the empathy and the understanding of your customers. It is so important to your marketing.