NBC Universal’s female-targeted ad sales, marketing and research initiative, called Women at NBCU, announced the August 2010 rankings for its monthly Brand Power Index this week, which was designed to be the most comprehensive measure of the 25 consumers brands that are most important and most talked about by women.
The index is compiled using online search data from comScore, social media data from New Media Strategies and person-to-person conversations tracked by Keller Faye. Since research shows again and again that women are responsible for the vast majority of purchase decisions, this index should be one to keep an eye on.
According to a press release from NBC Universal, the following brands ranked as the top 25 brands buzzed about by women in August 2010:
- Walmart
- Target
- Verizon
- eBay
- AT&T
- Coca-Cola
- Bank of America
- Ford
- Amazon.com
- Pepsi
- McDonalds
- Sprint
- Dell
- HP
- Dish Network
- Comcast
- Gap
- Toyota
- Sears
- Netflix
- Kohl’s
- iPhone
- Microsoft
- Wells Fargo
- Home Depot
500 brands were analyzed in determining the top 25 brands buzzed about by women in August 2010, and aside from the top 25 ranking, the following findings stand out:
- Seven different product categories are represented in the top 25, including technology, automotive and finance – areas traditionally thought of as male-dominated.
- Seven of the top 25 brands are in the technology sector including Verizon, Sprint, Dell, HP, iPhone, Microsoft and AT&T.
- Brands that leveraged new media for promotions saw considerable gains in buzz from July to August. For example, both Gap and Pizza Hut took big jumps up on the list with those leaps being partially linked to mobile foursquare promotions.
- Brands that announced pro-social initiatives also experienced significant gains. For example, both Starbucks and Olive Garden announced sizable investments in charitable programs in August, which led to leaps in their rankings within the Women at NBCU index.
Statistics also show that women talk about brands they like with a full 96% recommending products they like to others. This is an audience that every brand needs to connect with. If marketing to women isn’t already a priority for your brand, it should be.
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Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
