Do you often wonder why consumers are drawn to some brands and not others? You’re not alone, as this is a question that always comes up in business conversations. In fact, Facebook polled 15,000 customers to find out what factors influence their brand loyalty and trust. Among the common answers were cost, consistency, quality, and experience.
In today's market, you'll find all types of consumers. Some want luxury items, while others focus on the price. Some customers stick with what they know, while others are willing to try new things.
And while the rise of fast fashion may show that most customers care less about quality than value. Their most crucial concern is actually consistency above all else.
The best way to grow a consistent brand is to focus on your brand positioning. How is this done? We recently performed a survey to understand which brand positioning concepts work the best, and the results may shock you.
What's the Survey's Purpose?
The study's premise was to determine which brands people prefer and how it's affected by their demographics.
The data was collected to help business owners better understand how to rebrand their small, medium, or large business. Teaching entrepreneurs how to make quick, well-informed choices will help them better position their brand and name their company.
In order to maximize our data collection, we also asked Americans if they prefer to buy from businesses that align themselves as traditional or modern.
Why Should You Care About What People Prefer?
When rebranding or building a business, one of the first things you'll do is find the appropriate tone for your brand. This is crucial because the right tone allows marketing teams, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs to create their brand identity as to how customers will view them.
Your chosen tone will affect your organization's entire identity and shape what the customers expect from your business. Without a tone, branding is impossible, so this is one aspect you can't avoid when creating your brand strategy.
We should mention that our survey specifically inquired about whether consumers were attracted to classic companies or more modern businesses. We chose this question because, ultimately, the most important decision a founder must make is whether their company will position itself as traditional or new.
Our Findings
Though our study may have some findings that will shock you… here's a quick glance at what we discovered from 301 consumers:
Young people in their twenties and thirties are drawn to new businesses. Over half of our participants in this age group said they'd rather support a new business over an established one.
Those aged between 35 and 45 also prefer newer brands over older ones, though the results were a bit more evenly dispersed.
People between 45 and 65 found well-established brands more preferable.
Traditional companies reigned supreme among participants aged 55 to 65.
Men have less of a preference overall than women.
Women mostly prefer older brands over newer, more contemporary ones.
Of the 301 participants, 153 of them reported preferring reliable, established firms. This means that 148 people liked brands that were innovative and new. The survey ultimately shows that a business can take any approach to tone so long as it aligns with the consumer.
What Does All Of This Mean?
In the end, our research showed that younger generations are more intrigued by modern, innovative, disruptive, and fresh companies. At the same time, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers like to remain traditional.
As a business owner, this information is extremely valuable and helpful for choosing a tone and naming your business. It tells you that if you're targeting younger folks, you need a catchy name that shows your company is forward-thinking. Alternatively, if your business is aimed at older generations, stick with classic names and a traditional identity. Now that you understand the tone your company needs to take, find a business name creator and start having some fun!
Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world's leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies.
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