By Dave Gutting
SVP, Strategic Projects

WARC, the leading platform for creative effectiveness, just published a report on the impact of putting products at the heart of campaigns.  

It validates one of the most important findings of BarkleyOKRP’s most recent Whole Brand Research, which found that combining product and brand communications explains 60% of a brand’s success in the marketplace. 

According to the WARC report, “Brands – faced with the dual task of showcasing product superiority and delivering excitement – built original brand experiences with the product at their core and showed up in relevant, highly charged cultural moments where their products could take centre stage.” 

Product marketing is, of course, fundamental to the brand-consumer relationship. One of its essential claims is that “Building emotional, sensory, and unique experiences into products and product-driven storytelling can enhance mental availability and brand love, leading to long-term consumer adoption.” 

BarkleyOKRP used relative weight analysis, an advanced statistical tool, to find a definitive value to how much each component of a whole brand contributes to performance. Product comes in at 33%, more than any other attribute, followed by communications at 27% (thus the combined weight of 60%). These elements are “predictor variables” and thus of high value. 

The chart above shows all the predictor variables that comprise our Whole Brand Index and their impact on market outcomes. Together with the WARC findings, the takeaway for brands is simple: paying close attention to product pays off. Now we know how and how much.  

Read the full WARC article here.

For a thorough evaluation to help your brand build its biggest future, contact our Chief Growth Officer, Jason Parks, at jparks@barkleyokrp.com.