If you could magically transform your brand’s value to match that of another brand, which company would you choose?
This week Moz introduced a new value metric – Brand Authority. The SEO and marketing software company calls it the “first-to-market metric for measuring brand strength and exposure.”
Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Advisor at CMI, discusses value metrics in light of Moz’s Brand Authority Score. Watch it below or read on for the highlights:
Although Moz doesn’t say so explicitly, the brand authority metric measures the strength of the brand being discussed and/or its awareness in broader online conversations on a scale of zero to 100. The number measures popularity, so theoretically the most hated brand in the world would be score well.
@Moz’s new Brand Authority Score measures the popularity of the brand’s online presence, says @CMIContent of @Robert_Rose. Click to tweet
What brand metric is really important?
According to Moz, this rating looks at the brand’s online value through the lens of search engines, which makes sense given Moz’s activities. “Users can assess their marketing gaps to maximize their return on investment, see the true value of sales prospects and potential acquisition targets, and assess the real impact of the media brands picking up on their stories,” the company said in the announcement.
While Robert agrees with this explanation, he has another thought. “The score itself is much less interesting than how the score has evolved over time relative to the brand’s efforts,” he says.
A brand’s new authority score from @Moz will be the most interesting as it changes over time, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click to tweet
Who is at the top of what matters?
Moz published the top 500 brands based on their brand authority metric. Given that the score measures popular discussion, the probably unsurprising top 10 includes Google, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, Walmart, Target, Yahoo, Home Depot, Walgreens, and Fox News.
How does this list compare to other brand equity measures?
Kantar’s most valuable brands by financial valuation include a couple of names at the top: Google and Amazon. But various companies are popping up too – Apple, Microsoft, McDonald’s, Visa, Tencent, Louis Vuitton, MasterCard, and of course, the brand that’s been around forever, Coca-Cola. Interestingly, Apple barely makes the top 20 in Moz’s brand authority list, and Coca-Cola doesn’t make the top 500.
Of the 10 most financially valuable brands, only @Google and @Amazon also appear on @Moz’s brand authority list, says @CMIContent of @Robert_Rose. Click to tweet
Morning Consult publishes a list of the most trusted brands. In 2023, the top ten most trusted brands are Band-Aid, UPS, Amazon, Lysol, Kleenex, Cheerios, Visa, Dove, The Weather Channel, and FedEx. Only Amazon and FedEx even make Moz’s 500 list.
Now let’s look at a list of the most mistrusted or hated brands based on their reputation, as determined in a recent survey by Axios and Harris. Those appearing on both this list and Moz’s include Meta/Facebook, Spirit Airlines, and Twitter (now X).
“It just goes to show that your brand might have a lot of financial wealth and be part of the discussion, but might be on the wrong end of that discussion,” says Robert.
What values are important to your brand?
Brand equity is highly subjective. It’s most accurately measured by several attributes, including finance, trust, and popularity. As a marketer and brand steward, you help orchestrate perceptions of your brand over time because you cannot control it. They are the sum of promises kept – the spaces where your customers create their value and look at you with different eyes.
Moz’s new Brand Authority Score certainly seems to offer marketers a useful tool for measuring their efforts to promote the brand. However, one should keep in mind that increasing the score may not be the right goal.
What do you think? What values are most important to your company? Financially? customer trust? Consciousness? Popularity? Or is it something else? Let us know in the comments.
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Cover photo by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
