For the past 11 years, Brand Keys has conducted a comprehensive survey of brand loyalty among consumers. This year 371 brands were included in the survey across 57 categories, and 26,000 consumers were surveyed about those brands in September 2008.
The results of the survey are not entirely surprising with Google topping the list for the second year in a row. Other brands appeared to be directly affected by the state of the U.S. economy with brands like Wal-mart rising (from 63 to 18) and brands like Hyatt falling (from 8 to 32).
The top 5 brands overall are:
- Avis
- Mary Kay
- Maybelline
- Estee Lauder
It’s interesting that three of the top five brands are from the cosmetics category which is known for emotional branding and relationship branding. Despite the changing economy, female consumers remain loyal to (and perhaps become even more loyal to) brands that they are emotionally connected to. It can certainly be argued that creating emotional brands and relationship brands should be a key component of any brand strategy as those brands tend to withstand both the test of time and external conditions such as the fluctuating economy.
You can follow the links to view the complete results of the brand loyalty study by category as well as the methodology of the study.
What do you think? Do you see any surprises from the study?
Image: Flickr
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+.
LOL BP!!! I’m going to predict a change next year.