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.
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.
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.
Full report can be found on https://vase.ai/resources/brands-should-stay-out-of-the-danger-zone-of-indifference/
About Vase.ai
Vase.ai is a market research technology firm
specialising in online consumer research to help consumer brands make
decisions that drive higher ROI. With an emphasis on speed and accuracy,
our flagship software product, allows you to seek consumer opinions
from over 400,000 Malaysians and gain results in under 2 hours. Whether
you're a novice or an expert researcher, Vase can help you make better,
faster and more informed data-driven decisions.
About Asia School of Business
Asia School of Business (ASB) was established in 2015 by Bank Negara
Malaysia in collaboration with MIT Sloan School of Management to be a
premier global business school, a knowledge and learning hub infused
with regional expertise, insights and perspectives of Asia and the
emerging economies.
ASB’s executive education programs
and degree programs have been globally-acclaimed for leading the way in
management education. Through its award-winning Action Learning based
curriculum, in partnership with the corporate community and students
from across the world, ASB is committed to developing transformative and
principled leaders who will contribute towards advancing the emerging
world.
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