Methodology

To determine the global state of simplicity, Siegel+Gale fielded an online survey with more than 15,000 respondents in 9 countries to gather perspectives on simplicity and how industries and brands make people’s lives simpler or more complex. During the study, respondents rated more than 800 brands. The brands were selected as a representative set that respondents would be most likely to know and/or use in each country.

15,000 +
Consumers
9
Countries
25
Industries
800
Brands

Survey Topics

This year’s respondents answered questions about brand touchpoints within specific industries and brands, including:

  • Their perceptions of experiences within 25 industry categories they experience in daily life
  • How familiar they are with certain brands
  • Whether they recently used these brands
  • Their willingness to pay more for brands they currently use if they provided simpler experiences
  • The simplicity/complexity of a brand’s communications and interactions in relation to their industry peers

Brand
Simplicity Score

The score was calculated with the following inputs:

  • The score was calculated with the following inputs:
  • How each brand was rated on the simplicity/complexity of its products, services, interactions and communications in relation to its industry peers

    (User/non-user ratings were weighted to give more importance to the user experience and remove any possible bias for higher proportions of users for some of the brands.)

  • How consistently the brand experience and communications were rated across respondents (the standard deviation of ratings)
  • How aligned non-user and user perceptions were, privileging aligned perceptions
  • The Simplicity Score for the brand’s industry or category(ies)

Industry
Simplicity Score

The score was calculated with the following inputs:

  • The industry’s contribution to making life simpler or more complex
  • The pain of typical interactions with companies/organizations within the industry
  • How the industry’s typical communications rank in terms of:
    • Ease of understanding
    • Transparency/honesty
    • Communicates that customer needs are being cared for/Making the customer feel valued and appreciated
    • Innovation/freshness
    • Usefulness