Pet Product News Editorial Blog:
Friday, February 26, 2010
Playing with Numbers
By Sherri Collins
Editor, Pet Product News International
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I have always had a fascination with numbers. Not just the numerals themselves, but what they can represent--dates, counts, measurements, averages, rankings, correlations and even opinions via surveys and polls. This fascination also has a dangerous side for me since I tend to remember numbers (20+ years later I can still remember most of Mervyn’s store numbers from when I worked in its buying office—yes, I know, I need help).
A recent numbers game that crossed my inbox comes from Brand Keys, a New York-based brand and customer loyalty and engagement consultancy, which annually fields a Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI).
The 2010 index examined customers' relationships with 518 brands in 71 categories and, according to the firm, the analyzed data paints a detailed picture of the category drivers that engage customers, engender loyalty and drive real profits. This year’s index found that, for the Consumer Packaged Goods category brand, attributes and brand impact on customer decision-making increased significantly.
"While a powerful finding, it is not entirely surprising,” said Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys founder and president.” Our 2009 findings predicted that value, not price, was the watchword in consumer behavior. And you can't have the value conversation without the brand conversation, as true brands provide meaningful differentiation in a world over-run by commodities.”
The index intrigued me because, besides my overall fondness of numbers, there are two categories of note for those of us in the pet industry. Along with looking at such diverse areas as breakfast cereal, banks and DVD players, the index also reported on two pet food categories: Canned for Cats and Canned for Dogs. The winners, according to Brand Keys, are those brands that received the highest loyalty and engagement assessments for 2010. Click here to see the entire Index.
The Index’s top brands are:
|
Pet Food: Canned (Cats) |
Pet Food: Canned (Dogs) |
| 1. |
Hills |
Purina One |
| 2. |
Purina |
Pedigree |
| 3. |
Iams |
Alp |
| 4. |
Whiskers |
Hills |
| 5. |
Fancy Feast |
Gravy Train |
| 6. |
Friskies |
Iams |
| 7. |
Meow Mix |
Kibbles 'n Bits |
| 8. |
9Lives |
|
Oh, one other thing; when reviewing any survey, poll or study, I always keep a mental grain of salt in the back of my mind, because as Mark Twain frequently said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.”
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