Levi’s ranked the most-intimate brand in the apparel industry in MBLM’s Brand Intimacy 2017 Report released today.
The report, based on emotions, revealed that the apparel industry performed slightly below the 15-industry average, coming in seventh out of 15 categories examined.
The most intimate apparel brands in the U.S. following Levi’s were Nike, Lululemon Athletica, Under Armour, Adidas, Victoria’s Secret, The North Face, Ralph Lauren, Gap and Puma, according to the report, which defines brand intimacy as a new paradigm that leverages and strengthens the emotional bonds between a person and a brand.
Apple was the top-ranked overall brand in the report, followed by Disney and Amazon. The Automotive sector was the top-ranked industry, with Media & Entertainment, and Retail next in line. In Retail, Amazon held the top spot, followed by Whole Foods, Target, H&M, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Sephora.
Related Articles
According to the 2017 report, top-ranked intimate brands continued to outperform the S&P and Fortune 500 indices in revenue and profit over the past 10 years.
You May Also Like
“Brands that you wear are intimate by nature, yet this industry is falling short on its potential,” said Mario Natarelli, MBLM’s managing partner. “This may be because of a variety of factors, from shifts in the way we shop to generational orientations and out-of-reach messages. However, we firmly believe there is room for the industry to build stronger emotional connections with consumers.”
Other notable apparel findings in the U.S. were that indulgence is the dominant category archetype, although only 24 percent of apparel customers surveyed are intimate with brands in the category.
Levi’s strongest association is related to nostalgia and it has the highest percentage of fusing with customers at nine percent. More than half of the top 10 brands are athletic related, aligning with the “ath-leisure movement,” the report noted.
MBLM hypothesized four potential reasons why this industry is falling short. These include that apparel brands have become less relatable and what was once inspirational advertising is now often out-of-touch with most people and unbelievable. Brands are also pivoting to align with celebrities and pop-culture figures, shifting away from a tradition of linking to athletes.
In addition, less-intimate shopping experiences with the rise of e-commerce make it easier to shop for brands at a variety of outlets, the report noted, and a Millennials with more disposable income are being drawn to superior service and web-based retailers.
This year’s report contains the most comprehensive rankings of brands based on emotion, analyzing the responses of 6,000 consumers and 54,000 brand evaluations across 15 industries in the U.S., Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.
Conducted by Praxis Research Partners, participants were screened for age and annual household income in the U.S. and socioeconomic levels in Mexico and the UAE.
The survey was designed primarily to understand the extent to which consumers have relationships with brands and the strength of those relationships, from fairly detached to highly intimate, and to provide prescriptive guidance to marketers.