And my WOW brand is...

After my failure on Facebook, I started searching for consumers advocacy on Youtube.
Why? Because the commitment is even stronger than on Facebook : you can see real interview of the consumer.
And I finally found out the example of what I wanted to get in terms of consumer reaction...
Just have a look at these 2 videos :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMOPj6-4nDU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqgr4UUqdNg&feature=player_embedded

A brand able to get this level of advocacy is just creazy!
Burger King is for sure a WOW brand!

A WOW brand must be globally "advocated"

In order to assess the level of advocacy of consumers, I decided to interact with these consumers who said they "liked" a brand on Facebook.
I selected a short of TOP "liked" brand from the ranking posted last time: FMCG brands, most liked.
I created a new profile on Facebook and started posting comments on the wall of each brands such as :
"38 mios people liking Coca-Cola, what did the brand do to deserve that?"
" Oreo, what is this product, never heard about!"
" Are there any Starbucks in Paris, can't find one!"
"Why is Burberry so expensive?"
...

My intention was to measure the level of reactivity of the fans, if they were reacting.
I was quite disappointed with the number of comments I had (not so many, most of the time from the webmaster...).
To me, there can be 2 explanations :
- my Facebook profile was not credible enough to bother reacting on
- my posted were not involving/teasing the fan enough

Another limit I experienced is the filter on Facebook : I have been asked by the webmaster to stop posting comments on the walls, as they considered I was spamming! Very surprising attitude from a supposed sharing platform.

A WOW brand must be globally "liked"

Looking for brands appreciated "globally" is not an easy one!!! No one is ready to run a research on 6 bios people...
So I decided to investigate on Facebook : 600 mios people - equiv. the 3rd country in the world.

Is there a ranking on the brand "liked"?
The one I found shows amazing figures!

35 mios fans for Coca-Cola, 25 mios for Starbucks, 22 mios for Red Bull...

What is amazing is the fact that all these consumers have clicked on "like" ; symbolically, it the consumer going towards the brand and not the brand communicating to the consumers.
It is the first steps when consumers become advocate of the brand.
And to me, the capacity of brand to have consumer advocates should be the key criteria to define WOW brand. But how can we assess Brand advocacy at a large scale?

A WOW brand must be global

To be able to be considered as a WOW brand, the brand has to be known in each corner of the globe.
Indeed, it is the guarantee of beeing appreciated by a majority of consumers.

So how are we able to assess the "globality" of a brand?

Official ranking from serious consultancy companies have already ranked brand at a global level. For exemple, the report of Millward Brown :

It is an intresting step to list the real "global brands", but definitely not enough...
Even if some consumer datas are integrated in these kind of rankings, financials still are over-weighted.
How could we further listen to "global" consumers?

Asking for WOW Brands

To the question I asked to each of my interviews : "what is a WOW brand for you?", I had so many answers.
Either came up all the same "usual" brands (Apple, Nespresso, Coca-Cola, Mc Donalds...), either much more segmented brands such as Paul Smith, Mini, Lady Gaga, FC Barcelona...
The common thing about the interviews was the fact that there was a "strong personal relationship" between the brand and the consumer. But if this is the only criteria to define a WOW brand, almost eveything can be a WOW Brand : my favorite bar, my newspaper, my favourite wine...
So there must be other ciriterias. This is when I start thinking... what should be the criterias to define a WOW brand?