Will a 5-Star Rating Make Customers Choose Your Brand?

Do industry star-ratings really help brands grow?

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency just announced a proposed 5-star rating system for electric two-wheelers.

That caught our attention, because it’s seen as important to consider for business leaders foraying into new categories.

In a new and confusing category like e2wheelers, with 90+ makers and brands, we do feel a simple rating can help consumers compare products more easily.
It can reduce confusion, build confidence and maybe also push the industry towards better energy performance.

But for a business or brand in a new category, there is a larger question:

Will a better star rating make your brand more preferred?
Not necessarily.

In this case of passenger vehicles, consumers do not always buy the most energy-efficient option.

If they did, SUVs would not have grown so much faster than smaller cards, the way they have in India.

People buy for many reasons: confidence, status, convenience, design, safety, performance, technology, pride, identity, and sometimes simply because the product feels more “me”.

This is especially important in emerging categories like electric vehicles.

A star rating may simplify one FEATURE.
But don’t let it define your full CUSTOMER VALUE PROPOSITION!

Tesla, for example, did not become the world’s most aspirational  (and for a long time the largest selling) EV brand by selling “energy efficiency”.

It combined electric technology with design and software to give some unique FEATURES. performance, convenience, and a sense of being part of the future.
Those features created BENEFITS….performance, convenience, sustainability, newness.
More than that, they created VALUES….being cool, being different, being futuristic.
Those values made people desire the brand.
That is the real strategic lesson.

FEATURES --> BENEFITS--> VALUES
In any category, especially a new one, businesses must get that right.
Customers do not buy FEATURES. They buy BENEFITS.
More crucially, they buy the VALUES those benefits help them experience: control, confidence, progress, status, etc,

The challenge for an e-2Wheeler brand is not:
“How do we get a better star rating?” It is
“What value do we want to own in the customer’s mind?”.

For CEOs and business leaders, this is the bigger growth question:

Are your Product, Design, Sales and Marketing teams aligned around the same customer value — or are they each optimising separate features?

At RedVent, we use the Features–Benefits–Values ladder to help businesses align their teams around what truly drives customer preference and profitable growth.

This ladder is explained in a short RedVent Growth video. I’ll share the link in the comments.

Standards may help a category grow.

But distinctive customer value… that’s what makes a brand WIN!

#CustomerValue #GrowthStrategy #BrandBuilding #ElectricVehicles #CEOs