• by Tanya Gazdik , October 13, 2016

Tesla bested other automakers including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari in brand experience, according to a study by WPP’s experience consultancy Group XP in collaboration with brand data company BrandZ.

Tesla is ranked 20th, compared to BMW (23rd), Mercdes-Benz (28th) and Ferrari (30th).

Pampers ranks first overall in ranking of all brands. Other brands that finished in the top 10 include Disney, PayPal, DHL, Facebook, Apple, Google, Ikea, UPS and Visa.

The Experience Index evaluate brands according to the strength of their customer experience. The report ranks the Top 30 Global Experience Brands against four specific components that seek to activate what the study’s architects are calling the most important marketing metric going forward: share of experience.

Criteria include: impression (stands for something unique); interaction (delivers on your most important needs); responsiveness (have better online services and engaging content); and resilience (strive to make people’s future lives better through higher brand purpose).

Group XP’s results show that companies with superior brand experience achieve greater value growth and increased revenue compared to those with low brand experience. 

Brands that deliver innovative experiences outperform others by up to 166%. They scored highly across all four components – most notably in “Responsiveness.” Brands with medium experience capital outperform the market by up to + 66%, scoring highly in one or two components but not consistently strongly across all four. Brands with low experience capital actually declined in value by -0.4%, scoring poorly across all the four components with a slight focus on the more traditional brand building area of Impression.

Consumers’ lives are defined by experiences, resulting in customers who are more demanding than ever, says Group CEO Simon Bolton.

“We believe that great customer experiences should be easy and rewarding in equal measure,” Bolton said in a release. “These are the basic principles of designing with a user experience mindset – understanding the obstacles that people are trying to navigate around and making that journey simpler and more straightforward and recognizing the most uplifting and memorable way they can interact with a brand, retailer or service.”

Creating a superior customer experience accelerates profitable business growth, says Iain Ellwood, chief growth officer, Group XP.

“The most valuable brands exhibit a profound customer centricity that enables more innovative approaches to business models & technologies and this results in customer experiences that can generate completely new revenue streams,” Ellwood says.