WhatsApp, Netflix, MSNBC, Fox And Other Media Brands Among America's Most 'Loyal'

by Joe Mandese , January 27, 2020

Media brands, including Amazon, Netflix, MSNBC, Fox, Google, and an ascendant WhatsApp, are dominant among the top 20 loyalty brands, according to findings from the just-released 2020 edition of Brand Key's annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.

Other top consumer brands based on a loyalty focus include established ones like Chick-fil-A, Dunkin, Hyundai, Avis, Apple, Chase, and the NFL.

The study, based on a comprehensive sample of more than 60,000 Americans, also shows that brand loyalty has increased an average of 20% between 2019 and 2020 across 85 categories representing 16 industries and 833 brands, including consumer, B-to-B and D2C ones.

“Two decades into the 21st century the world has more complex brand and mediascapes. It’s more data-rich and technologically-intensive. Consumers are more complex, connected, and complicated. They connect with each other before even considering connecting to a brand and assess loyalty relative to how they envision an ‘Ideal’ brand,” Brand Keys President Robert Passikoff asserts, adding: “It only takes a nanosecond for consumers to note how well a brand is ‘seen’ to meet their expectations for the path-to-purchase drivers that defines behavior toward and fidelity to a brand."

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8 comments about "WhatsApp, Netflix, MSNBC, Fox And Other Media Brands Among America's Most 'Loyal'".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, January 27, 2020 at 9:40 a.m.
Joe, I was surprised to see The Fox News Channel trailing MSNBC in this study of "loyalty". All of the other evidence from Nielsen average minute ratings to the latest Pew report suggest that the Fox viewer is one of the most loyal TV channel fans. I wonder if the folks at Brand Keys would care to comment on this. Has there been a change since past studies? etc.
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Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., January 27, 2020 at 9:45 a.m.

@Ed Papazian: How do Nielsen ratings define "loyalty?" The Brand Keys study is based on in depth interviews with consumers about the role loyalty plays in driving their engagement with brands.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, January 27, 2020 at 9:58 a.m.

Joe, invariably a TV channel which has a much higher average minute audience than a rival offering the same genre of content will turn out to have a more loyal audience in the sense that the reason for its higher average minute ratings is that its reach watches the channel more often. I dont have the latest MRI data but they ask respondents how often they watch the various cable channels and the last time I looked, Fox had the largest percentage of frequent viewers within its weekly reach base than either CNN or MSNBC. Also, I have seen Nielsen monthly reach tallies for Fox and CNN which showed that the latter reached more people per month despite its very low---compared to Fox---average minute ratings. In other words, the Fox viewer consumes a far greater dose of Fox content---in terms of time spent---than his/her counterpart for CNN. I take this as a sign of greater loyalty for Fox viewers.

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., January 27, 2020 at 10:16 a.m.

@Ed Papazian: Well, I'm not expert on Nielsen ratings, but I think what you're referring to his behavior, not necessarily "loyalty." I've seen attempts in the past to try and get at a loyalty measure from Nielsen data (ie. Nielsen "Quad Clusters," etc.), but I think Nielsen and Brand Keys are measuring two different things.

That said, it makes sense that Fox viewers are relatively loyal, given the brand's consistent ratings, which is probably why it ranks among the top 20 overall consumer brands.

I wouldn't necessarily draw and explicit comparison between it and MSNBC, because MSNBC is a vertical 24-hour news channel brand, and Fox is a broader media brand (that includes Fox News, etc.).

But if you have a specific question, maybe we can get Brand Keys to explain it in better detail.

Joe

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, January 27, 2020 at 10:27 a.m.

Joe, all I am looking for is something that helps me to interpret the findings. For example, how have the various cable channels performed in such measurements in past years going back more than one year. If we look at the past ten years would we see Fox in the lead---but now declining? Or is there any variation during presidential election years? If Brand Keys can't be bothered to provide such trend data, that's OK---I understand. But maybe they might---which would also be informative.

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., January 27, 2020 at 10:53 a.m.

@Ed Papazian: I don't think it's a matter of being bothered. Brand Keys released results of the top 20 brands in terms of loyalty overall, which included many media brands, including Fox and MSNBC. I wouldn't necessarily try to compare the two, because MSNBC is a cable network and Fox is a broader TV brand, including a broadcast network and local TV stations.

The main point is the role that brand equity plays in consumer engagement with brands, not TV ratings, per se.

We publish a regular series of tracking data in collaboration with Brand Keys that are specifically about media brand engagement.

Here's one we did on the role of "trust" in cable news brands from last summer:

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/339494/msnbc-ascends-in-tv-news-trust-fox-news-trump.html

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, January 27, 2020 at 12:16 p.m.

Joe, I assumed that the table from Brand Keys was referring to the Fox News Channel but I am probably wrong and it lumps the Fox entertainment/sports network with the news channel. In which case, I'm surprised that "Fox" did so well. This raises the question, shouldn't the survey have dealt with the Fox News Channel as a distinct entity---just as it did with MSNBC? Why single out MSNBC from its more general "parent",NBC? Assuming that I'm correct, it's likely that a fair share of respondents who cited "Fox" more favorably regarding "loyalty", were thinking about the news channel, not the entertainment/sports network. Too bad, as the Fox News Channel---no matter what one thinks about its political slant---would probably have scored very well.

John Grono from GAP Research, January 27, 2020 at 5:35 p.m.

IMHO, loyalty is best gauged by behaviour and not opinion (largely measured by people ticking boxes).

A good way with TV ratings is to take the audience reach over a 4-week period, and divide the total minutes viewing during that same time-period by the total reach.

Doing this, you see the 'appeal' of a programme along with its 'loyalty'. You can have programmes which have appeal but low loyalty (high reach/low average usage), low appeal but high loyalty (low reach/high average usage), and those in between.