A lot has changed in the last 50 years. Except brand and marketing effectiveness research. The pervasive measurement tools used by most marketing and communications departments are based on the century-old theory of how information is transferred to consumers, called the "hierarchy of effects." The theory invokes a range of advertising and marcom magic intended to build awarness of the brand, invariably causing client prospects to develop warm fuzzies for the company and triggering purchase. Every self-respecting research firm and communications agency has its own in-house version of this model.

There's a problem, though: the last 50 years have presented us with broad and intense research repeatedly disproving this cause-and-effect model. The hierarchy of effects theory is based on obsolete behavioral psychology that assumes that customers start droolilng like Pavlovian dogs when the bell of advertising is rung, triggering a domnio effect of awareness, emotions and actions. It has been so successful for so long because it is admittedly intuitive, elegant and easy to measure. Research drones interrupt people at the dinner table with tidy lists of questions. Numbers get crunched and massaged, with customers divided into neat little segments, cohorts, and clusters. The audience is targeted with a mass-monologue of seductive advertisements that they are presumed to absorb, uncritically, like so many androids falling in love with and acting upon the mass-mediated urge.

Beyond the polished hallways of the Advertising Complex, however, it's now widely recognized that the human psyche is a bit more complex than that of your average dog. Our perception of brand is based on memories of all our encounters with the brand: not only the ads, but also the package, and most importantly, our experience with the products and services, with sales and customer care representatives. Every contact with your company is a microcosm of its brand in the mind of customers, whether it's a call to tech support, a visit to the Web site, programming and using a product, reading an owner's manual, shopping in a retail store or seeing a commercial on TV. Each of these brand touchpoints should - and could - consistently speak the same message, and create memorable, positive experiences for your customers.

Instead of just measuring how loudly companies scream in their attempts to stand out from the cacophony of commercial messages, a new brand scorecard needs to be developed, and one key measure must address how well your brand ambassadors deliver your message. MORI, a major UK research firm, found that "how staff treated you" was a key factor in customer loyalty, and in doing so confirmed the crucial role of brand ambassadors. The MORI research team conducted face-to-face interviews with over 1,000 people in April 2000. They identified 12 brand ambassador benchmarks (listed below). The more of these criteria that were achieved by a company, the greater the degree of loyalty established with the customer.

Gone are the days (if they ever existed) when brands were created through the traditional "branding" activities of colorful logos and witty tag lines, creative commercials and unique packaging. The brand is no longer defined by a shiny, cosmetic make-over job that's applied as an afterthought to products. Instead, customer perceptions of brand are based on the character of the brand, as expressed across the full lifecycle of the product and the entire customer experience. This change has dramatic implications for brand management because marketing communications is no longer the key link to consumers; instead it's a broad interface of the database, the operations, and the front line workers that connect the brand with the consumer. This critical operational shift redefines brand management as a cross-functional dynamic that, if it is to succeed, must orchestrate the activities of the front line in order to assure a winning, end-to-end service experience. Brand managers need to start measuring the effectiveness of their brand delivery in these customer touchpoint-oriented terms if they hope to effect genuine results for the bottom line.

Advertising luminary David Ogilvy put it best when he described the mainstays of marketing and communications research as being "used like the drunkard uses the lamppost, for support rather than illumination." The strategy building insight comes from entirely new brand research approaches. Stay tuned for more articles about this in future Focus issues.

MORI's 12 brand ambassador benchmarks:

1. Show a genuine interest in helping - they clearly understand what the customer wants and are positive and helpful delivering the required service.
2. Have the knowledge and skills to do their jobs well - they are fully trained with excellent product knowledge.
3. Appear committed to doing their best - they always strive to deliver the best solution.
4. Show appreciation for customer interests/purchases - they take a real interest in the customer's purchase.
5. Go the extra mile to make sure customers are satisfied.
6. Listen to customer needs before offering a solution - they ask the right questions and propose workable solutions.
7. Seem to feel involved and like a part of a team - there was a feeling of teamwork, with seamless interaction between the various people and departments involved in delivering products and services to the customer.
8. Are enthusiastic about their company's products/services - believe in what they are presenting and selling to the customer.
9. Show pride in their company.
10. Show pride in the company's products/services.
11. Seem confident about the company's future.
12. Speak highly of their company - they are happy to discuss their company's achievements and have no need to criticize the competition.