DUBAI—9 June 2019—The health & hygiene industry experienced a lift in overall emotional connection with consumers this year, rising three ranks from #11 to #8 out of 15 industries. Additionally, this is the industry consumers are most likely to pay 20% more for, as showcased in the 2019 Brand Intimacy Report. Nivea took #1 for the first time ever, with Pantene coming in at #2 and Colgate at #3, pushing previous star performers Dove and Gillette much further down the list. Dettol, Vaseline, J&J, Oral B, Dove, L’Oreal and Gillette round out the Top 10, in that order.

 

Among female users, the health & hygiene industry ranked #6 most intimate industry and only #13 for males, showing a divide in importance of the industry to each gender. Nivea performed particularly well with women and the 35- to 64-year-old demographic, two key demographics for the industry.

 

Brand Intimacy is defined as the emotional science that measures the bonds we form with the brands we use and love. Top Intimate Brands outperform top brands in the S&P and Fortune 500 indices for revenue and profit. Consumers are willing to pay price premiums for Intimate Brands and less willing to live without them, according to the 2019 Brand Intimacy Report. MBLM leverages the yearly study to help client brands create, sustain and measure ultimate brand relationships.

 

“On average, brands in this industry create emotional connections with one out of every two of its consumers almost immediately” said William Shintani, managing partner of MBLM. “ This insight suggests brands in the category should find ways to connect quickly with their consumers and continue to focus on building strong bonds. ” 

 

Other notable findings for the health & hygiene industry include: 

Methodology: During 2018, MBLM with Praxis Research Partners conducted an online quantitative survey among 6,200 consumers in the U.S. (3,000), Mexico (2,000), and the United Arab Emirates (1,200). Participants were respondents who were screened for age (18 to 64 years of age) and annual household income ($35,000 or more) in the U.S. and socioeconomic levels in Mexico and the UAE (A, B, and C socioeconomic levels). Quotas were established to ensure that the sample mirrored census data for age, gender, income/socioeconomic level, and region. 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. It is important to note that this research provides more than a mere ranking of brand performance and was specifically designed to provide prescriptive guidance to marketers. We modeled data from over 6,200 interviews and approximately 56,000 brand evaluations to quantify the mechanisms that drive intimacy. Through factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and other sophisticated analytic techniques, the research allows marketers to better understand which levers need to be pulled to build intimacy between their brand and consumers. Thus, marketers will understand not only where their brand falls in the hierarchy of performance but also how to strengthen performance in the future.