Written by:
Jeremiah Karpowicz
Widespread and well-documented increasing electricity prices aren’t helping utilities build a brand, but their messaging could be better.
The way the general public understands the challenges a utility faces, whether local, regional, or national, cultivates a perception of how service providers are looking to address costs that impact their bottom line.
A recent report from J.D. Power crystallizes these insights but contextualizes them in a whole different way, helping the entire energy industry get a sense of how consumer brand perception is making an impact. While we’ve already detailed recent key findings of that 2025 study, the report contains much more insight and detail on how to address perception challenges today that will define opportunities tomorrow.
To provide that context, we connected with Chris Oberle, managing director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power. He told us how regional distinctions have been incorporated into the report in an instructive manner, the difference it makes when utilities go the extra mile, what advice he has based on the findings, and much more.
Jeremiah Karpowicz (JK): What surprised you most about the key findings from the 2025 reports? At a high level, how do they compare to trends and findings from previous studies?
Chris Oberle (CO): As an industry, utilities are still wrestling to find appealing brand identities as their value propositions are out of synch with customer expectations. Being reliable and service-oriented are table stakes, but customers want utilities to be focused on innovation, affordability, community outreach, and the environment.
Even though utilities are very community-focused, many customers don’t think they are supporting the causes that matter most to them.
JK: Do you believe that regional differences or utility models influenced any of the brand appeal findings? Are there specific challenges or opportunities that utilities should better understand in certain regions or regarding how the public understands their model?
CO: The Brand Appeal factor importance weights are the same across regions, with reputation, trust, and marketing execution all playing a role. It’s good to recognize that every region has utilities with strong brand appeal. However, on an aggregate regional basis, there is a difference in brand appeal index (BAI) performance with the South and Midwest scoring higher than West utilities overall.
JK: You mentioned that customers don’t feel like their utilities are going the extra mile, but is that more about reality or perception? Which is to say, are customers assuming the worst in the absence of evidence, or are utilities simply not communicating everything they’re doing to keep costs down in a way that resonates?
CO: Utilities have many programs and options to help customers with affordability. The difference is that utilities that are more appealing to do business with have greater customer awareness of these programs and can also influence consumer behavior to use the programs. Utilities that score high on our Brand Appeal Index also rate highly on being trusted advisers.
It’s also good to note that many utilities increased on brand appeal while others declined year-over-year.
JK: What are some of the strategies utilities can utilize to improve their brand appeal beyond talking up how they provide reliable service?
CO: They should improve their communications intensity as the industry has lowered their volume of customer communications and some utilities are communicating on topics that are not that important to customers. Instead, they need to make customers aware of their efforts to be leaders on innovation, environment, community support and developing programs that customers can use to improve ease of doing business, affordability and make customers believe that their local utility is on their side.
JK: What long-term challenges could come up for individual utilities and/or the wider industry if these brand appeal and customer perception challenges are not addressed?
CO: There will be significant customer and stakeholder pushback on management initiatives and pricing which will ultimately cause lower earnings through greater resources being expended to gain requited approvals.
Customers at lower BAI scoring utilities tend to complain more often about a utility over-earning and discounting their communications and touchpoints as being self-service instead of helpful. High brand appeal is required for a utility to be an effective player in the energy industry transition, leverage new service options and to achieve adoption of expanded offerings.
JK: If there’s one thing you want utilities to realize based on your findings, or something you’re recommending to them as a specific next step, what would it be?
CO: Understand who your customers want you to be beyond service and trust table stakes. Utility customers are expecting more from their utility than ever before. As rates continue to rise, they expect greater value for paying more. That is basic consumerism at work. They expect their utility to be a company that they want to do business with, not have to do business with.
To meet their expectations, utilities will have to increase their communications, control their narratives, let customers know how they can help, and be transparent about issues that impact their everyday lives. Most importantly, not all customer bases are the same, and utilities need quantifiable ways to understand the specific expectations of their particular customer base. If utilities don’t perform to customer expectations beyond simple reliability, service, and trust, then their path forward will be much more difficult. They will be asked to do more with fewer resources and lower customer support. (Courtesy of renewableenergyworld.com)
