The Q Score is a way to measure the familiarity and appeal of a brand, company, celebrity, cartoon character or television show. The higher the Q Score, the more well-known and well thought of the item or person being scored is. The Q Score is primarily used by the marketing, advertising and public relations industries. Sometimes the term Q score is used in popular discussions of a person or product’s overall fame, popularity, or likeability. Other popular synonyms include Q rating, Q factor, or simply Q. The Q Score was developed in 1963 by Marketing Evaluations, Inc., a United States company based in Manhasset, New York. To calculate someone or something’s Q Score, Marketing Evaluations surveys a panel of US consumer households about their awareness and opinion of that person or thing. The Q Score is influenced by both people’s familiarity with the subject and their favorability toward it. Q Scores are calculated for the population as a whole as well as for demographic groups such as age, sex, income or education level. Marketing Evaluations claims that the Q Score is more valuable to marketers than other popularity measurements such as the Nielsen Ratings because Q Scores indicate not only how many people are aware of or watch a product, but how those people feel about the product. A well-liked television show, for example, may be worth more as a commercial venue to an advertiser than a higher-rated show that people don’t like as much. Marketing Evaluations regularly calculates Q Scores in 8 categories:
- TVQ rates broadcast television programs
- Cable Q rates cable television programs
- Performer Q rates celebrities
- Dead Q rates the current popularity of dead celebrities
- Sports Q rates sports figures
- Cartoon Q rates cartoon characters, video games, toys and similar products
- Product Q rates brand and company names
- Kids Product Q rates children’s responses to brand and company names
TVQ and Cable Q Scores are calculated for all regularly scheduled broadcast and cable shows. Other Q Scores are calculated to order for clients who pay Marketing Evaluations who want to research public perception of a brand or celebrity. For example, in 2000, IBM hired Marketing Evaluations to calculate the Q Score for Deep Blue, the supercomputer that defeated chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Deep Blue’s Q Score was 9, meaning the computer was as familiar and appealing at the time as Carmen Electra, Howard Stern and Batman. In contrast, Albert Einstein’s Q Score at the time was 56, while Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy each received a Q Score of 6. In 2006, Davie Brown Entertainment, an Omnicom agency, introduced the Davie-Brown Index (DBI), which determines a celebrity’s ability to influence brand affinity, consumer buying behavior and purchase intent. It provides brand advertisers and their agencies with the only celebrity rating index developed from the brand perspective.
