1. Is social simple enough?
Findings from Siegel+Gale’s
2012 Global Brand Simplicity Index
Russ Meyer, Global Strategy Director @russhmeyer
Brian Rafferty, Global Director, Research Insights

2. Simplicity is…
Useful to me
Transparent/Honest
Easy to understand
Cares about my needs
Innovative/Fresh

4. Simplicity pays
200% Simplicity
Portfolio
150 up 190%
S&P
100 up 77%
Dow
50 up 70%
DAX
0 up 71%
–50 FTSE
2009 2010 2011 2012 up 43%
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

5. People are willing to pay more
for simpler experiences
General insurance Internet search Retail/General Retail/Grocery
Shipping/Mail Banks/Retail Health insurance Retail/Fashion
Travel/Air Restaurants Automotive
Internet retail Travel/Train Electronics
Travel/Car rental Appliances Fitness
Social media
Retail/Health/Beauty
Travel/Hotels
Media
Travel/Booking
Telecom/Cable
Utilities
Telecom/Cell phone
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

6. Some industries are simpler than others
Simplest
industry
Most complex
industry
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

7. Most simple global brands: 2012
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

8. Search brands vs. social brands
Search brands Social brands
0 125
3 26 29 39 62 66 69 73 83 103 105 118
Simple brand Complex brand
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

9. Least simple global brands: 2012
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

10. Usefulness and transparency are the
dimensions where social lags most
8
7
6
Internet
5 search
4
3 Social
media
2
1
0
Useful Transparent/ Easy to Cares about Innovative/F
to me Honest understand my needs resh
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

11. Search is simple because it’s easy to use
and intuitive
“[Bing] gives you direct results.”
“The ease of use and the results you get [from Bing] make
it much easier to search.”
“Google makes searching much easier.”
“[Google] is one of the most simple websites out there.”
“Using [Google] is basically built in to what I am doing
and any search is easy.”
“Google’s web interaction is intuitive.”
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

12. Social is complex because its purpose is often
unclear and privacy issues prevail
“Compared to other websites, Facebook’s interface is horrible. It’s
amazing so many older people have been able to figure out how to use it.”
“Facebook keeps changing for the worse. They keep changing
everything about it which makes it hard to keep up with and very
frustrating.”
“Privacy [on Facebook] is not a simple issue. I still can’t figure out
how to set my account to the privacy settings I want.”
“Have never found a good explanation of how [Google+] differs/is
similar to regular Google.”
“Haven’t figured out how to use my Google+ account, online help
inadequate, other social media much more intuitive.”
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

13. Search brands vs. social brands
Search brands Social brands
0 125
3 26 29 39 62 66 69 73 83 103 105 118
Simple brand Complex brand
Copyright Siegel+Gale, 2012. All rights reserved

14. To learn more
Beginning October 16, 2012 you
may download the full study at
siegelgale.com/Pivot2012