Information about Q Score

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.

External links

• Marketing Evaluations home page
• IBM press release discussing Deep Blue’s Q Score
• CNN article on Deep Blue’s ranking