Media Brand Values
Nigel Jacklin, managing director of Objective Research, examines the findings of the recently launched Media Brand Values survey…
The recently launched Media Brand Values survey is the first survey to respond to demands for globally comparable data concerning the relationships people have with the media they consume. This article looks at some of the key findings of the survey of top managers and influentials which was recently launched in London.
About the Survey
The survey covers an elite audience of influentials (including NGO’s, the media, bankers and management consultants) as well as top management of commercial and pubic sector organisations. Covering 10 countries in Europe, Asia and the US, its remit is to investigate the relationships these individuals have with the media they consume, as well as providing other ‘context’ data (such as when they consume different types of media in their working day, social influence and personal interests). Data was collected using a six page postal questionnaire. Further information is available at www.mediabrandvalues.com.
Sample Profile
The sample of 1,395 had an average income of US$220,000 with 41% representing their organisations on industry bodies and 35% attending conferences at least once a month.
Top personal interests – shared by all the main sample groups across the globe – include travelling and spending time with family, whilst interest in environmental and similar issues was lowest for those on the main boards of the worlds largest organisations (only 12% claiming this as an interest, compared to 27% for influentials).
Media Consumption
In the course of a typical working day they consume a wide range of media, 84% consuming any media at home before they set off for work, 86% consuming media during working hours and 93% consuming media after work (when the widest range of media are consumed).
The survey measures frequency of consumption of national and international media with 14 print and TV media measured on a global basis (11 also having their web sites measured globally). The reach of these media, particularly when print, TV and web are used in combination, is high, meaning that global media can be used to reach the majority of this group and can form the basis of a schedule on a global basis.
Media Brand Attributes
For all media included in the survey eight ‘media brand attributes’ are measured:
Trustworthy A Source I Quote or Refer to Stimulating Helps me in my Work Influential Keeps me Ahead of the Game For People Like Me Is a Must
Of these eight attributes, trustworthy appears to be the least discriminating, seemingly being the basic attribute on which many relationships are based. Having said that, the way the questions have been answered, suggests that there are degrees of trust – the typical score on this attribute being in the order 50% suggests that when an attribute is ticked by a respondent it means they rate a media highly on that variable.
The brand attribute data can be used to shortlist media and to look at print on an AIR basis or TV on a yesterday basis. A means of incorporating this into a schedule tool is in development with Telmar.
Individual Performances
Individual media vary significantly in terms of the breadth and depth of relationship they have with their consumers.
In terms of breadth, some are seen as more ‘stimulating’ and may well provide a good environment for campaigns intended to raise awareness of key issues, whilst others are seen as more functional (for example help me in my work) providing a suitable environment for mainstream corporate sales support. A few media perform well across the board – being both stimulating and highly functional – others have fairly weak relationships with consumers at this level.
In terms of depth, some media have a loyal ‘narrow’ core of readers – they perform well when you look at their regular consumers, but do less well amongst those who consume them on an occasional basis – whilst others are rated highly by both their regular and occasional consumers. In terms of breadth, some media have a very narrow ‘appeal’, for example providing stimulation but little more, whilst others perform well across all the attributes. Examples of the different patterns are given below.
In the UK, the Daily Mail is read by a reasonable number of senior and influential individuals – but it is not clear why they read it – they do not rate it anywhere near as highly as the regular readers of other daily newspapers – its strongest attribute is ‘for people like me’ claimed by 25% of regular readers – only 6% felt it ‘helped them in their work’.
In France, whilst business daily Les Echos has more regular readers than Le Monde, and is generally rated much higher across the board, Le Monde is seen as more influential (37% of its readers considering it influential vs 21% for Les Echos), no doubt recognising its important political influence.
On the surface the US looks like a very strong newspaper market (in terms of the value placed on the media by its consumers) over half the typical readers of the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times rating them as trustworthy. Dig a little deeper, however, and it is clear that there are significant differences between titles – this figure for USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and Investors Business Daily fell to around a quarter.
In Asia, individual publications were rated much more variably, (in particular in comparison to their global competitors) India’s Economic Times being a good example of a newspaper with a strong relationship with a significant number of loyal readers (but a weaker performance amongst its occasional readers).
Compared to national media, global media provide an environment which benefits from the broad relationship their consumers have with them, putting them at the top of the media hierarchy for this group. The strongest global media (in terms of brand attributes) include BBC World, The Economist, the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, National Geographic and the Wall Street Journal. Detailed analysis shows that each has specific strengths – a schedule placing more emphasis on trust and helps me in my work would lead you to one set of choices, whilst one placing emphasis on stimulating and source I quote or refer to would lead you to a different set of media. Media strategists who want to base such decisions on an independent set of data would do well to look into the MBV data!
Further information on MBV Global can be obtained from Nigel Jacklin (nj@objectiveresearch.com), from the survey sponsors (BBC World, The Economist, the Financial Times) or by visiting www.mediabrandvalues.com.