Advertising isn’t one-size-fits-all—it’s about understanding your audience and tailoring your message accordingly.

In our recent case study on fast food advertising, we delved into the complexities of brand relationships and how ads impact consumer behavior.

What did we uncover? Wendy’s and Sonic successfully draw in various user groups, enhancing loyalty and re-engaging lapsed users.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s campaign strategically targets lapsed users, aiming to reignite their interest.

Surprisingly, many Wendy’s enthusiasts end up purchasing McDonald’s due to accessibility issues—a testament to the power of preference.

Unfortunately, Burger King’s ad fails to move the needle on preference, highlighting the importance of impactful messaging.

This case study underscores the nuanced impact of advertising on consumer preferences.

It’s not just about reaching audiences—it’s about resonating with them.

Advertising for established brands serves a crucial purpose: reinforcing brand position, enhancing saliency, and strengthening loyalty.

But what if you could do more than just remind people you exist? What if you could nudge perceptions and drive real change in brand preference?

Enter landscape advertising—a powerful technique designed to navigate the competitive landscape.

At MSW Research, we employ a four-step process to make it happen.

1️⃣ Gauge the current position of brands in the market.

2️⃣ Expose the advertising for all brands in the category.

3️⃣ After a full exposure cycle, we reassess each brand’s performance to measure the impact of advertising.

Take this case study on fast food chain advertising for example.

We scrutinize every brand, tracking gains and losses to discern patterns and shifts. This is the heart of our system—how advertising influences preference.

With MSW’s landscape advertising approach, we calculate a persuasion score for each advertised brand in the category, unlocking invaluable insights for strategic decision-making.

Let’s navigate your brand’s landscape together.

The MSW TBSM tracking service measures brand preference as one component of the survey.  Using TBSM Auto Insurance category data, changes in brand preference results between 2021 and 2023 were computed for individual brands.  Our Chart of the Week displays these results for the three top players in the US Auto Insurance market: State Farm, Geico and Progressive.

In addition to this brand preference data, this week’s chart includes the change in market share (between 2021 and 2023) for each of the top competitors as computed from annual published data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

• Between 2021 and 2023, State Farm realized gains in both brand preference and market share of over two percentage points.
• Similarly, Progressive also achieved increases in both brand preference and market share of around one and a half percentage points.
• For Geico, brand preference was flat while market share decreased close to two percentage points.
• Brand preference for State Farm and Progressive tracked market share very closely. This is expected given previous studies which demonstrate the close relationship between preference and market share. In fact, independent studies conducted by the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) have found that preference proved to be a better fit to sales and market share than any other standard research question examined.
• Geico experienced less favorable market share results than might be expected from the unchanged level of brand preference. There are two reasons for this: price and level of advertising spend.
• The MASB research also demonstrated that including price along with brand preference provides an even better prediction of market share. These studies demonstrated that an increase in brand preference can translate into either a gain in market share or the ability to charge a price premium at the same market share level.
• According to data from S&P Global, over the time period from 2018 through 2023, Geico’s rates increased substantially more than their competitors. And in 2022, the year where all insurers started making large increases in rates due to increased losses due to inflation and other post-pandemic factors, Geico increased rates much more than State Farm or Progressive:

• Due to the same profitability issues, automobile insurance companies also cut back on advertising spend starting in 2022. While 2023 figures are not yet available, a report from AM best showed that Geico cut back on advertising spend much more than did either State Farm or Geico:

• The combination of a much larger increase in rates and much larger cut back in advertising spend explain why Geico experienced a drop in market share between 2021 and 2023 despite an unchanged level of brand preference.