DATA REPORT
How Building Brand Love Helped BlueOcean Customers Thrive in 2022
As the economy continues to fluctuate, investor confidence wavers and inflation remains high, brands face a challenging environment for 2023. However, these circumstances also afford a great opportunity: people want brands that are aligned with them on an emotional level, specifically as it pertains to perceptions of cost, value and customer experience. This report explores the role of audience sentiment across emotional themes, and what thriving brands did in 2022, to retain high sentiment and build brand love.
In this report, you will learn:
- How audience sentiment declined overall in 2022
- How BlueOcean customers outperformed their peers in audience sentiment
- What brands can do to invest in growing brand love
The Brand Love Dataset
As economic uncertainty continues in 2023, building brand love is more important than ever. To dig into this further, our data science team at BlueOcean was interested in how brands performed in customer sentiment during the year 2022. We evaluated review content left for over 1,000 different brands between the dates of January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022. We used a wide array of review sources that are the most germane for the brand’s industry vertical, including but not limited to: G2, Capterra, Google Reviews, ConsumerAffairs and Gartner Peer Insights. In total, we analyzed over 5,600 reviews - each analyzed for their themes with a corresponding sentiment score. We then weighted the sentiment based on the theme’s prevalence in reviews.
We were particularly interested in emotional themes, as those tend to be more subjective and thus have greater fluctuation depending on current events and the actions of the brand. We found that while sentiment slowly declined through the year, many BlueOcean customers found success in holding their brand share while their competition slid backwards. And within those successful clients, we found a cohort that managed to climb above the rest and made major strides in a year when so many of their competitors slipped behind.
This research examines a group we call the Thrivers - the BlueOcean brands that saw the most significant improvement in consumer emotional sentiment during the year 2022. These brands didn't just survive - they thrived - and their success is thanks in part to their partnership with BlueOcean. We first cover the current sentiment environment facing all brands, how BlueOcean customers managed to weather the storm, and what were their keys to success.
2022 Brought Choppy Waters for Sentiment
In 2022, businesses experienced widespread economic turmoil, which posed unique challenges for marketing organizations, often tasked with driving durable growth in the face of mounting hurdles, like tech industry layoffs, tightened marketing budgets and fundraising difficulties. And widespread consumer sentiment was no different, declining as the year went on.
Previously, BlueOcean conducted research (The Impact of Audience Connection on Brand Health and Revenue Growth) which indicated that brands with positive emotional sentiment in consumer reviews have a very high correlation with increased web traffic and user-generated search traffic - meaning that they get more SEO bang for their B2B marketing bucks. But our data has also shown a general decline in audience sentiment since 2021, making the task that much harder.
The beginning of 2022 saw a 42% increase in overall sentiment and 16% boost in emotional sentiment, perhaps due to renewed business optimism. However, as market conditions softened, however, consumer sentiment began to slide in the second half of the year. While sentiment scored higher at the conclusion of 2022 than in the year prior, brands still struggled to make inroads with customers.
Most concerning is how that stagnation decline manifested. At the outset of the year, emotional themes scored an average of 17% higher than the overall average. However, by the end of the year emotional sentiment declined so much that it became a net drag on overall sentiment. The emotional disconnect between B2B brands and their target audiences that we’ve discussed in previous research was clearly evident.
It's more important than ever to have a strong emotional connection with an audience.
BlueOcean Brands Found Calmer Waters
.png)
BlueOcean customers, however, were better able to weather the storm than their peers. While sentiment took an overall backslide, BlueOcean clients were more likely to maintain their market position than their peers. For example, while BlueOcean clients saw, on average, a 2% decline in average review sentiment from Q2 to Q3 or last year, it was less than half of their competitors’ deterioration. Moreover, while the competition remained stagnant, BlueOcean customers managed to even gain ground in Q4 The gap becomes even more striking when looking at sentiment for emotional themes. By the end of the year, BlueOcean customers were performing 17% higher than their competition in emotional themes. BlueOcean customers have proven to be more resilient and maintain their market position, even during tough times.
The Thrivers
We examined the BlueOcean brands that saw the most significant improvement in consumer emotional sentiment. These brands did not just weather the economic environment of 2022 - they thrived in it, and are brands that gained at least 40% improvement in their emotional thematic sentiment. The Thrivers were concentrated in key industries like Productivity and Collaboration Technology, Payment Processing, Services, and Enterprise Technology. These are industries that involve immediate technical, operational, and infrastructural needs for businesses, with clear ROI expectations and value at the forefront. It makes their gains in such a demanding environment all the more remarkable. So, what sets our top clients apart?
We found three common actions they took (click to expand each action):
-
1. Doubled Down On Brand Investments
The top-performing Thrivers brands did not shy away from investing in their advertising efforts, even in the midst of economic uncertainty in 2022. While many were cutting back on advertising spend, these industry leaders recognized the importance of continued exposure and remained steadfast in their commitment to promoting their brand.
As a result of their unwavering commitment, the Thrivers were able to maintain and even grow their market share in 2022. By staying top of mind with their target audience and effectively communicating the value of their brand, they were able to establish a strong competitive advantage that set them apart from their peers.
-
2. Addressed Customer Pain Points
The Thrivers also outperformed their competition on aligning with their audience on functional themes. While this may seem counterintuitive at first, it speaks to the power of intimately understanding and speaking to customer needs.
By prioritizing emotional themes and sentiment in their communications, these industry leaders were able to build a strong connection with their target audience. They were able to create an emotional bond with their customers, establishing a sense of trust and loyalty that helped them stand out in a crowded marketplace.
But this emotional connection was not built in isolation. Rather, it was informed by a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences, which allowed these brands to effectively communicate the value of their products and services to their audience. By doing so, they were able to effectively convey the value of their brand and build a lasting relationship with their customers.
-
3. Created Meaningful Social Media Interactions
The Thrivers have been able to create a two-way conversation with their customers. Our research found that the Thrivers had a 58% higher likes, replies, and mentions rate than the overall average by the end of 2022. This increase in engagement is a testament to the power of providing meaningful social media interactions that resonate with your target audience.
But why does providing engaging brand content on social media channels translate to a better sentiment score on emotional themes in reviews? The answer lies in the emotional connection that social media interactions can create. By engaging with customers in a way that feels authentic, supportive, and empathetic, brands can build a strong emotional bond that translates to positive sentiment and loyalty.
These critical actions taken by thrivers, showed up across Likes/Replies Rates, Advertising Spend, and in how well brands aligned their content to the functional themes the audience cared most about.
The BlueOcean Difference
BlueOcean was able to help customers navigate challenging times, by providing the holistic, always-on data marketers needed to make confident decisions, through uncertain times.
BlueOcean is on a mission to revolutionize how marketing decisions are made. BlueOcean's AI-powered decision intelligence platform, Brand Navigator, is the only always-on Decision Intelligence platform that provides CMOs and their teams the ability to quantify marketing performance and access always-on, contextual insights that tear down data silos and build a holistic view of brand health. By taking a fundamentally different approach to marketing data and insights, we can inspire more creativity - and help teams unlock a brand strategy that confidently drives business performance.