Brand marketing: relevance and experience

According to a recent ranking, the three most relevant brands in the UK are: Apple, Lego and Playstation.

More than 10k consumers responded to the survey, saying that--for the third consecutive year--Apple is the most relevant brand in their lives. What is relevance? According to the Brand Relevance Index, it means 1) consumer obsession, 2) inspiration, 3) innovation and 4) pragmatism.

Lego is #2 in this survey, a brand that understands consumer behaviour and knows how important personal experience influences relevance. Lego is using event marketing and other in-person experiences to compete in newer markets such as Hong Kong. The Lego House in Denmark is an in-person brand experience built from 25 million plastic Lego bricks.

In fact, more brands are marketing themselves through experiences. For instance, Converse--which makes athletic shoes--refashioned a London hotel into a limited-time brand experience earlier this year.

Watch for more brand marketing via experiences during the holiday shopping season as companies seek to build awareness, preference and purchasing.

Top UK brands--and branding insights

The 2015 Brandz study (methodology by Millward Brown) puts Vodafone on top as the most valuable UK brand of the year. In order, the top 5 UK brands, by value, are:

1. Vodafone (telecoms)
2. HSBC (financial services)
3. Shell (oil/energy)
4. BT (telecoms)
5. BP (oil/energy)

 The most valuable brands in the world are all US-based:

1. Apple (electronics)
2. Google (Internet/electronics)
3. Microsoft (electronics)
4. IBM (computers and services)
5. Visa (financial services)

Millward Brown's top 5 insights for increasing brand value are: Innovate and delight the customer; be meaningfully different (in ways that customers value); stand for a purpose; act according to the purpose; build and maintain trust.