Come with me on what I’m calling a random walk with James McQuivey. This walk is through Ikea. I went there in search of a simple question: What is it about this experience that gives Ikea one of the top performing Brand Energy scores in our recent Brand Energy Framework debut? One answer we already had in our data: emotion. Ikea scores top on emotion and emotion accounts for nearly half of the energy a brand can accumulate, energy which powers up consumer behaviors like brand advocacy, purchase intent, and willingness to pay a premium.

I went on a walk through Ikea to talk out loud about what I could see there that would explain why an experience so fraught with CX challenges — the massive warehouse, the auto-assembly — could score so high overall on brand energy.

My walk through spurred some insights which I shared as I walked, then edited down. None of what you’ll hear in these roughly 18 minutes was scripted, but it was cut down for your convenience. It’s an experiment I’m making in delivering value to Forrester’s clients related to our published research, so if you have feedback for me, fire away, here or on twitter @jmcquivey. Or, if there’s a place you want me to take a random walk and talk about digital disruption, consumer hyperadoption, emotion-rich customer relationships, tweet me a suggestion and I’ll see what I can do. Until then, enjoy this recording, and follow the links below to learn more about the research I mention in the recording.

Enjoy!

Research mentions:

Brand Energy Framework
Report: June 27, 2017 – Emotions Fuel Your Brand Energy
Blog Post: Introducing Forrester’s New Brand Energy Framework, July 18, 2017
Ikea lands highest emotion score, from Figure 3

Latest emotion research
Report: August 14, 2017 – The CMO’s Guide to Emotion

Original music credit: yours truly