Study: 84% of Brands Are Losing Their “Want-It” Factor, and the Reasons May Surprise Marketers

A striking new figure making the rounds in French marketing circles:84%of brands are reportedly running a “desirability deficit,” according to a study cited by industry outletCB News.

The takeaway isn’t that companies can’t get attention. It’s that many can’t convert awareness into real preference, something consumers will choose even when it costs more, takes longer, or isn’t pushed by a discount. And in a crowded, always-on marketplace, that “want-it” factor has become a high-stakes metric for executives and investors alike.

Desirability used to be shorthand for luxury. Now it’s a broad test of whether a brand feels coherent, trustworthy, genuinely useful, and easy to live with, without exhausting people. The study’s headline number raises a blunt question: why are so many brands failing to spark desire, and what can they do to get it back?

Why the “84%” number is setting off alarms in marketing and the C-suite

The84%figure lands like a warning siren because it suggests a majority problem, not a niche slump. Inside companies, numbers like this typically trigger two immediate reactions: leaders scrutinize the methodology, then compare it with internal signals like brand preference, Net Promoter Score, market share, and how often the business has to lean on discounts to move product.

Part of the challenge is that “desirability” isn’t one clean KPI. It’s a bundle of emotional and practical judgments, quality, trust, modernity, cultural fit, and whether the brand feels distinctive or interchangeable. A company can be everywhere, big distribution, big ad spend, and still be low on desire if consumers think it’s the same as the next option.

The timing matters, too. After years of inflation pressure and higher costs for everyday services, shoppers are tougher and more skeptical. They don’t just ask, “How much?” They ask, “Why is it worth that?” If a brand can’t clearly justify its price with proof people believe, desirability erodes even if the ads are unavoidable.

And it’s not only a consumer issue. A brand that feels stale or untrustworthy to the public can also look that way to job candidates, especially in competitive fields like tech, design, and digital marketing. That’s why more companies are trying to align their consumer brand with their employer brand, tightening up messaging and improving the end-to-end experience from recruiting to customer service.

Constant discounting trains customers to wait, and drains perceived value

One of the most common culprits behind falling desirability: relentless promotions. When a brand runs discounts nonstop, it teaches customers to hold out for the next deal. The list price starts to feel fake, and buying turns into bargain-hunting instead of brand loyalty.

That dynamic is supercharged by instant comparison. E-commerce platforms, price trackers, coupon codes, and deal alerts make it easy to treat products as interchangeable. If a brand can’t point to a real edge, better service, proven durability, smoother delivery and returns, it gets shoved into the “commodity” bucket where everything feels the same.

Even heavy marketing can backfire. Brands that flood consumers with ads, influencer posts, and repetitive messaging can create fatigue, especially when the hype isn’t matched by consistent quality, credible reviews, or reliable customer support. People don’t just punish omnipresence. They punish emptiness.

Brands trying to reverse the slide often start by resetting the role of price: limiting discount windows, simplifying product lines, and investing in tangible value, better materials, easier repairs, more dependable shipping, and clearer warranties. The goal is to stop “negotiating” with customers every week and rebuild a calmer, more confident value proposition.

Consumers are increasingly skeptical of ESG talk, and they’re checking receipts

Desirability today is tightly tied to credibility. The rise of ESG and corporate responsibility messaging has raised expectations, people want commitments, proof, and consistency between what a brand says and what it does.

But the flood of vague, feel-good claims has also produced backlash. Greenwashing controversies have trained consumers to verify: third-party labels, watchdog reports, ingredient sourcing, repairability, and return policies. If a brand talks big about sustainability but can’t show measurable progress, or dodges tough questions, trust drops, and desirability goes with it.

Everyday friction can also undercut lofty promises. Excessive packaging, late deliveries, hard-to-reach customer service, and confusing refunds can make “responsibility” messaging sound like marketing theater. Consumers don’t separate the big mission from the daily experience; they judge the whole package.

The brands that recover tend to communicate more like auditors than poets: fewer sweeping claims, more verifiable data. Some choose narrower promises they can actually keep, publishing timelines, targets, and third-party audits. Over time, desirability rises less from storytelling and more from consistent, credible signals.

Social media makes disappointment go viral, and sameness harder to hide

Desirability is also built, or destroyed, in public. Social media has radically sped up how fast impressions spread. A bad product experience or customer service blowup can become widely visible in hours, and that spotlight can hit small businesses as well as global brands.

Influencer marketing cuts both ways. Authentic use can boost preference. But forced partnerships or lukewarm reviews can damage a brand quickly, especially in categories where testing and comparison are the norm, beauty, consumer tech, and food. Visibility can rise at the same time desirability falls if the attention exposes performance gaps.

Another drag: content sameness. When brands copy the same formats, jokes, and slogans as competitors, they become harder to tell apart. Consumers often shift their enthusiasm to more distinctive, sometimes smaller brands that feel closer to real communities.

Companies trying to rebuild desirability tend to focus on two things: improving “moment of truth” experiences (delivery, setup, returns, customer support, in-stock reliability) and publishing content that’s actually useful, demos, tutorials, honest comparisons, and real-world proof. Desire comes back when a brand earns trust over time and gives people simple reasons to pick it over the next tab in their browser.

What “brand desirability” actually means

Brand desirability is a brand’s ability to generate true preference, not just name recognition. It blends emotional factors (affinity, image, modernity) with practical ones (perceived quality, trust, usefulness, and a consistent experience). A brand can be famous and still not be desirable if it feels interchangeable, overly discount-driven, or not credible.