In 2025, we relaunched our Brand Experience Index (BX Index™) as part of a holistic Total Experience Score. Now, in 2026, our newly published second iteration reveals some notable shifts in the market.

At its core, brand experience is a perception construct. It measures how customers and noncustomers perceive a brand based on the sum of their experiences. Those perceptions shape how people engage with brands, which ones they choose to buy from, and the relationships that endure. For companies, brand experience is a powerful lever for both acquisition and retention.

Forrester’s BX Index operationalizes consumer perception across 406 brands, 13 countries, and 10 industries, combining customer and noncustomer perceptions into a composite measure grounded in three dimensions: salience, fit, and trust.

Key insights from this year’s BX Index data include:

  • Broad-based gains in North America. In the US, 40% of brands improved while 8% declined. In Canada, the gains were even more dramatic: 68% improved and none declined. This is not isolated progress — it is systemic. Six of 10 US industries increased their average BX scores, while all five Canadian industries we studied improved. The bar has been raised; brands must now outperform a rising cohort, not simply improve in isolation.
  • Europe’s trajectory remains more constrained. Only 23% of brands recorded year-over-year change, though all observed changes were positive. Most brands remained static, and gains, while meaningful, were modest. In Germany and France, some brands show a significant gap between customer and noncustomer BX scores, suggesting strong customer perceptions that have yet to diffuse into the broader market.
  • Asia Pacific saw limited and uneven movement. Across the region, 87% of brands showed no significant change, while 4% improved and 9% declined (with all declines occurring in Singapore). Industry-level movement was similarly limited, with notable gains in Australian auto and home insurance and declines in Singaporean health insurance. The lack of broad market movement creates an opportunity for brands that can meaningfully strengthen and differentiate their brand experience.

Brand experience along with customer experience comprise Forrester’s Total Experience Score. While the BX Index measures brand perception, our Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) measures the ease, effectiveness, and emotion that customers associate with brands — capturing how well organizations live up to their brand promise.

If you’re a Forrester client, you can find more details on regional performance, as well as specific industries and brands, in our report, Forrester’s Global Brand Experience Index Rankings, 2026. You can also check out our full suite of experience reports via the links below.

I hope you will join us at an upcoming Forrester CX event to learn more about the role of brand in building and sustaining a powerful total experience.