All about the BrandZ
By Steve Mullins. Frugality wasn’t a big issue last year, according to the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2011 report from WPP and Millward Brown. But that doesn’t mean consumers were frivolous, the research suggests, which means that brands will continue to feel the impact of the recession-accelerated shift to considered – rather than conspicuous – consumption.
However, the desire for well-crafted and long-lasting merchandise pushed along those luxury sales, with brands like Louis Vuitton and Hermès appreciating significantly in value over the course of 2010.
Changes in shopping behaviour touched most sectors as consumers emerged from the recession more sceptical and savvy, “more empowered by digital technology to search for the best prices and most trusted reviews, even on mobile devices while standing in store aisles,” says the report.
These developments influenced the ways brands communicated with consumers, as they upped investment in social media – ‘engaging’ replaced ‘targeting’ in the marketing lexicon.
“With Facebook sites, YouTube videos and mobile apps, brands attempted to cultivate the long-term loyalty of Millennials, now in their teens and twenties. At the same time, brands worked to retain the parent generation of relatively wealthy Boomer customers, the oldest of whom turn 65 this year.”
The report says brands’ comms message were shaped by a number of themes:
The assertion of individuality resulting in a trend to the bespoke (for those who could afford it) or mass customisation (for everyone else)
A concern for personal health, with consumers paying more attention to the food and products they put in their bodies
A concern about the environment, with ‘green’ becoming a hygiene factor in some categories (such as the introduction of more hybrid, and a number of electric, cars)
A concern about product provenance as consumers sought peace of mind, knowing that any pleasure they derived from owning a product did not come at the expense of the people who made it.
