Television has had the default position as the branding medium. But in the last couple of years, the digital advertising community has been busy selling digital’s role in branding.
What do consumers have to say?
2020:Marketing Communications LLC has just released a brand new study of how consumers (men and women 18+) perceive the effectiveness of major offline and online media in addressing a variety of communications objectives. The surprising results will be presented in installments. Additional information is available from 2020’s leading media textbook, Media Planning & Buying in the 21st Century (3rd ed.). The first installment covered the results of consumers’ perceptions of the persuasiveness of media. The second installment will look at what consumers had to say about media influence on “branding.”
BRANDING
First, what is “branding”? Branding is the process of creating the right brand image for a product or service, even political candidates. Far more than just a physical product, a brand image represents the multidimensional “meaning” of a brand. For example, what do consumers think of when presented with a question like, “When you think of prestigious automobiles, which one make comes to mind first? Why do you say that?” Clearly, brand images are walking around in peoples’ minds, and advertisers are trying their best to change certain brand perceptions to gain a competitive advantage.
In order to sell more ads, advertising media organizations often claim that they can best assist in providing branding solutions to advertisers (a questionable premise). Nevertheless, digital media have recently made branding a major selling proposition-- in recognition that the objective of advertising is often “branding’—i.e., to create or reinforce the right brand image. To explore the media implications of a branding objective, we asked consumers the following question:
Q2: Which advertising medium do you believe has the biggest positive impact
on an advertiser’s BRAND IMAGE?
FINDINGS
The findings of the study are summarized as follows:
· 1. Television was the undisputed champion in terms of having the biggest perceived positive impact on brand image: 61% of consumers voted for Television and another 5% voted for digital video commercials. This suggests that two-thirds of consumers believe that audio/video communication is the most powerful kind of branding communication-- and by a wide margin.
· 2. Magazines (print & online) were rated most effective in branding by 13% of respondents
· 3. Radio was not perceived as an important branding medium receiving only 2%
· 4. Likewise, newspapers were not seen as important in branding, also receiving 2%
· Digital media appear to play an important but somewhat lesser role in branding according to these consumers.
· 5. Only about 30% selected digital media as having the highest branding influence including search engine listings display ads, mobile or video as having higher branding impact.
o 7% selected search engine listings as having highest branding influence
o 12% selected online display ads
o 6% selected mobile advertising
o 5% voted for online video advertising
CONCLUSIONS
Based on this study, there is a clear indication that the vast majority of consumers believe that media with a large audience== which convey a lot of imagery and realism— primarily television—play the strongest role in branding. Digital media play an important but comparatively minor role.
CONTACT
Company: 2020:Marketing Communications LLC
For more information visit our website: www.MediaPlanningBuyinginthe21stCentury.com.
Email us at marketing2020@aol.com
Telephone: 248-894-1151 (leave message)