TikTok sees surge in brand loyalty

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TikTok's brand loyalty has witnessed a huge jump over the past year. The 2022 annual Loyalty Leaders List by brand research consultancy Brand Keys found that the social media app jumped from 21st to fifth place this year, beating out rivals Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Instagram's brand loyalty slipped from six places to 15th this year compared to 2021 while YouTube slipped five places to 21st. Meanwhile, Facebook slipped 17 places to 46th.

There has been a history of competition between TikTok and Meta's Instagram and Facebook. In July, Instagram was criticised by netizens as well as celebrities Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner for attempting to be like TikTok since it began shifting focus from images to Reels. This resulted in the platform backtracking on product tests it previously rolled out, including full-screen videos and photos. Reels was called out by former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer in 2020 as "another copycat product" after Meta's "other copycat Lasso failed quickly". Reels.

Separately, TikTok and Instagram are also vying for supremacy among marketers in Asia. Emplifi recently found that brands post more often on Instagram (68%) than on TikTok (32%). While reach and interactions were higher on Instagram, video content had greater engagement on TikTok.

Meanwhile, Instagram and Facebook also rolled out a series of new features for Reels last month including Stars, a new revenue channel for content creators, as well as "Add yours" stickers which urges users to create or join a chain of responses to prompts and trends.

The 2022 annual Loyalty Leaders List provides the loyalty rankings for the top 100 brands, out of the 1,624 brands Brand Keys assessed in a cross-category analysis of 142 industry categories identified in the 2022 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Retail brands formed about 22% of Brand Keys' loyalty leaders, followed by F&B (16%) and tech (13%). The remaining were CPG (11%) and entertainment (11%), automotive (9%), financial (8%) and social networking (7%).

Although Samsung was the top Asian brand in the rankings as a result of its smartphone business, it still slipped three places to 17th this year. Hyundai followed closely behind Samsung in the rankings, dropping from 17th to 19th. On the other hand, Toyota's brand loyalty increased from 27th to 25th while Samsung's computer business jumped six places to 37th. Acer (57th), Subaru (76th) and Konica Minolta (84th) also made the rankings. The ranking also featured six new brands: Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Moderna, Pfizer, Paramount+, and Tesla.

Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys founder and president said the 2022 brand loyalty rankings are indicators of what a return-to-normalcy marketplace will look like in the coming months. According to him, brands first entering the top 100 are early indicators of consumer value migration.

"Plant-based meat substitutes and electric vehicles, while different sectors, represent similar values other brand categories should attend to. It’s hard to miss precedents as regards sustainability, greening and new pharmaceutical brands ties to health and wellness," he said.

“Loyalty is about emotional brand connection and consumers’ mostly-emotional expectations. Connect and meet expectations and your brand will always do better in engagement, consideration, and purchase,” he added.

Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders analysis was conducted during August 2022. It includes 68,125 assessments (M/F, 16 to 65 YOA). Respondents self-selected categories in which they are consumers and then assessed brands for which they were customers, assessing a total of 1,624 brands in 142 categories.

Unlike economic-use models that rely on archival data and profitability guesswork, Brand Keys said its rankings are 100% consumer-driven, measuring both emotional and rational aspects of each consumer’s decision-making process in the moment.

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