Perceived product parity – once rarity, now reality

How do consumers in different countries perceive brands in different product categories? Surprisingly, the answer is that the product perception parity rate is quite high. Perceived product parity means that consumers perceive all/most of the brands in a product category as similar to each other, or at par. A study by BBDO Worldwide (www. bbdo.com) showed that two-thirds of consumers surveyed in 28 countries considered brands in 13 product categories to be at parity. The product categories ranged from airlines to credit cards to coffee. Perceived parity averaged 63% for all categories in all countries. The Japanese had the highest perception of parity across all product categories at 99%, and the Colombians the lowest at 28%. Viewed by product category, credit cards had the highest parity perception at 76% and cigarettes the lowest at 52%.
BBDO clustered the countries based on product parity perceptions to arrive at clusters that exhibited similar levels and patterns of parity perceptions. The highest perception parity figure came from the Asia–Pacific region (83%) (which included Australia, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea), and also France. It was no surprise that France was in this list because, for most products, it used highly emotional, visual advertising that was ‘feelings oriented’. The next cluster was US-influenced markets (65%), which included Argentina, Canada, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Mexico, Singapore and the USA. The third cluster, primarily European countries (60%), included Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, the UK and Germany. What all this means is that in order to differentiate a brand, advertising cannot just focus on product performance, but also must relate the product to the consumer’s life in an important way. Also, much greater marketing effort would be required in the Asia–Pacific region and France in order to differentiate the brand from the competition and establish a unique image.