Who is the best at selling experiences online?
Who provides the best online experience for buyers? Where do StubHub and Ticketmaster rank compared to Groupon, eBay, NFL.com, ESPN.com, DraftKings, FanDuel, ESPN mobile app, and others who sell experiences online?
In collaboration with BAV, we developed the S3 4V ? Brand Index that evaluates online brands in terms of three positive dimensions of value, vision, and social vibe and one negative dimension of vanity. Customers favor online brands that demonstrate:
- Value: The leader, the best brand online characterized as (having)
- good value and worth more,
- trustworthy and reliable,
- simple and straightforward,
- high quality and high performance,
- original, authentic, down to earth and traditional
- Vision: The progressive, innovative, up-to-date, intelligent, visionary brand that is gaining in online popularity.
- Social Vibe: The brand that represents a fun, social, friendly, and charming online persona.
Customers discount or disfavor brands trying to score style-points without substance. Online visitors pick up on signs of Vanity, characterized as attempts to appeal to the upper class on the basis of glamour, style, prestige, sensuality, and trendiness. We find this has a negative effect on regular brand usage.
Together, these four dimensions explain over 50% of consumer usage of the brand. That amount of variance is another important V to consider as brand compete to win customers to their online real estate.
The Winners
The 4V Brand Index covers 278 brands that offer some form of online experience across a dozen sectors. Our index places weights on each of the four Vs in an equation that best predicts brand usage. Scores range from Amazon on the high end (29.02) to ISIS (-7.24) on the low end. Sectors include mobile phones, with iPhone and Samsung Galaxy outclassing all other comers by large margins. More interesting is competition among mobile payment vendors (Amazon Local Register vs. Apple Pay vs. Square), internet tools and services (Google Maps vs. MapQuest), or social media (how is Snapchat doing against Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?).
But, since we’re all about sports first, that’s where we begin. You can view the table with the 4V Index scores and the rest of the report here. Let me know if you would like more information.