The Experience Paradox: Why Better Satisfaction Scores Don't Always Mean Growth 

Customer satisfaction scores are rising across industries, yet market share continues to shift dramatically between competitors. Banking NPS scores have climbed steadily for five years, but challenger brands keep attracting customers at unprecedented rates. Retailers boast record satisfaction levels while watching revenue decline. This paradox suggests we're measuring the wrong thing. What if the relentless pursuit of satisfaction scores is actually blinding companies to what creates sustainable growth, and how can shifting focus to measure experience strategically drive growth?  

The 75% Truth About Brand Building  

For decades, marketers believed advertising built brands. But the reality is more nuanced. Surprisingly, experiences account for 75% of brand perceptions, while paid media contributes just 25% (Kantar, 2023). Every app interaction, every customer service call, every product encounter shapes how people see your brand far more than your latest campaign.  



Yet most customer experience programmes fixate on satisfaction metrics, overlooking research from nearly 10,000 brands globally. Brands with high "Future Power" (Kantar’s metric for a brand’s perceived Meaningful Difference and Salience) are 4X more likely to grow their value share. The strongest predictor of growth isn't how satisfied customers feel, but how distinctive they find the experience (Kantar Blueprint for Brand Growth, 2024).  

Meaningful Difference combines two elements: meeting genuine customer needs (meaningful) while doing so in ways competitors don't (different). It's not about being quirky for attention; it's about creating experiences that feel both valuable and unique.  

How Difference Defeats Satisfaction

Consider the energy market. Traditional providers spent years perfecting customer satisfaction, achieving respectable NPS scores through reliable service and smooth processes. Then Octopus Energy arrived.  

While maintaining a strategic marketing presence, Octopus became the UK's largest energy supplier primarily by creating experiences nobody else offered. Their "Wheel of Fortune" transforms the mundane task of submitting meter readings into a game with cash prizes. Customer service teams are organised as "Universal Energy Specialists" who solve complex problems without transferring calls between departments.  

Through distinctive experiences rather than satisfaction scores alone, Octopus achieved market leadership. Meanwhile, traditional utilities with higher satisfaction ratings continue losing customers. In categories where functional parity exists, meaningful difference determines who thrives (Kantar Energy Provider Analysis, 2024).  

The challenge for most organisations is that traditional measurement approaches miss this completely. They track satisfaction in isolation, without competitive context or connection to brand equity. This creates dangerous blind spots, where teams celebrate improving scores while market share erodes.  

Beyond Satisfaction: Measuring What Matters

Recognising this measurement gap, Kantar has launched ExperienceEvaluator, the first customer experience solution on our Marketplace platform. Rather than simply tracking satisfaction, it benchmarks how meaningfully different customers perceive experiences compared to competitors.  

The platform addresses three fundamental needs exposed by the experience paradox:  

- Competitive context - showing not just how satisfied customers feel but how distinctive they find the experience versus alternatives  

- Brand equity connection - revealing which touchpoints build long-term value beyond immediate satisfaction  

- Rapid, accessible insights - delivering results in as few as four days at an accessible price point, enabling organisations to track meaningful difference as dynamically as they currently monitor NPS  

This shift from satisfaction obsession to difference focus isn't just philosophical; it's commercial. Brands that improve their meaningful difference are 2.5 times more likely to significantly increase market share. They command premium pricing while competitors compete on discounts. They retain customers through genuine preference, not just switching costs (Kantar BrandZ Experience Analysis, 2023).  

 

^{Source: BrandZ Global database, 2014-2021, covering 45,789 cases}  

 

ExperienceEvaluator makes this measurement approach practical for organisations previously priced out of sophisticated brand tracking. By automating the connection between experience, brand perception and growth potential, it enables teams to make decisions based on what truly drives commercial success. For the first time ever, leaders driving change and growth will be able to leverage the power of Kantar Profiles & Marketplace to gain meaningful difference insights quickly, self-serve, and efficiently.  

Differentiation as Competitive Advantage

As markets mature and functional excellence becomes table stakes, the question facing every organisation is simple: does your experience make customers feel you're genuinely different? If not, you're likely competing primarily on price and convenience, leaving growth to those brave enough to stand out.  

In an experience economy where customer interactions drive 75% of brand building, meaningful difference separates tomorrow's growth leaders from today's satisfaction champions. The tools to measure and manage this difference now exist. The question is which organisations will embrace it. Those that do adopt meaningful difference will likely see their competitive advantage grow, while others continuing to chase satisfaction scores alone will see their growth slip away.  

Discover how ExperienceEvaluator can help you accelerate business growth through meaningful and different customer experience.  

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