Landor Associates conducts a survey each year to learn more about what marketers and consumers think about brands, branding trends, and more. The 2009 survey results are in, and they definitely reaffirm what most marketers have believed to be true throughout the year.
For example, the most coveted brand of 2009 and the past decade according to the survey results is Google. Given the fact that in the first decade of the 21st century, Google became the search engine, launched a Web browser, rolled out dozens of free applications and acquired even more, it’s no wonder that Google is so strong.
Furthermore, survey respondents identified the digital era as the one thing that impacted their lives more than anything else over the past decade. Again, this is not surprising considering the fact that the social Web was really just starting to catch on in the beginning of the decade. Look at where we’ve gotten so fast. Today, we rely on the quick spreading of information and discussing that information via the tools of the social Web like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Major news events have even been covered in greater depth through the social Web than through traditional media (think of the death of Michael Jackson, which broke on the TMZ.com blog or the spreading of information from inside Iran after the 2009 Iran Election via Twitter). The world changed significantly during the first decade of the 21st century thanks to the social Web. Interestingly, the survey also found that 75% of respondents preferred Facebook over other social networking tools.
Some of the most important issues to survey respondents during the past decade include the environment and green issues as well as the economy, both of which directly affect their buying habits and lifestyles.
While none of these findings are new revelations, they do reaffirm marketers’ views that digital and social media are integral components in the future of branding and marketing. If you don’t already have a digital and social media strategy for your brand, make 2010 the year that you get on board before you find your brand left behind.
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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+.
