Brands so hot - they're cool

Aston Martin, the iconic British sports car manufacturer, has been named coolest UK brand in the annual CoolBrands survey.

Pioneer of punk Vivienne Westwood is ‘en vogue’ topping the list of fashion brands with BBC iPlayer named coolest website.

Factors taken into consideration when judging the brands included, style, innovation, desirability and originality.  The process was independently managed by The Centre for Brand Analysis on behalf of Superbrands (UK) Ltd.

Researchers identifyed thousands of brands, which were then judged by a voluntary Expert Council and over 2,300 consumers.

This year Aston Martin reclaims its position at the top of the table narrowly pipping Apple’s iPhone to the post, a direct role reversal of last year’s results.

Aston Martin has topped the rankings four times out of the last five years showing that the quintessentially British brand is always held in high esteem by the nation.

When it comes to fashion, Vivienne Westwood tops the poll in the style stakes beating fellow luxury brands Chanel, Jimmy Choo and Alexander McQueen.

As well as iPhone polling at number two, iPod comes in at number three with the Apple brand itself coming in at number thirteen. However the ground breaking iPad doesn’t make the grade.

BBC iPlayer, Nintendo Wii and YouTube  feature in the top twenty showcasing the popularity for fun and accessible brands. Despite two luxury automotive brands in the top twenty (Aston Martin and Ferrari), Mini also makes the list, further highlighting that the top of the rankings is a concoction of ‘classic luxury’ and ‘down to earth’ cool.

In terms of specific categories, many of the leading brands have retained their pole position but there are also some interesting changes. In particular Harley-Davidson has knocked Ducati off the top spot when it comes to the coolest motorbike, Ray-Ban has replaced Rolex as the coolest fashion accessory and The Fat Duck has replaced The Ivy as the coolest restaurant.

Top 20 CoolBrands 2010

The expert council and consumers were asked to consider the following:

• Are they stylish?

• Are they innovative?

• Are they original?

• Are they authentic?

• Are they desirable?

• Are they unique?

The CoolBrands selection process was independently administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis Ltd.

A comprehensive database of the UK’s coolest brands was compiled using a wide range of sources, from sector reports to blogs. From the thousands of brands initially identified, approximately 1,100 brands were short-listed.

An independent and voluntary Expert Council scored this list, with members individually awarding each brand a rating from 1-10.  The lowest-scoring brands (approximately 40 per cent) were eliminated. A nationally-representative group of just over 2,300 UK consumers (accessed via a YouGov panel) were asked to vote on the surviving brands.

The opinions of the Expert Council (70 per cent) and the British public (30 per cent) were combined and the 500 highest-ranking brands were awarded ‘CoolBrand’ status.

Check out:

www.coolbrands.uk.com

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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Top brands using Twitter - November 2009

This year it looks like Santa will be checking his list on SNS (Social Networking Sites).

According to shop.org forty seven per cent of webRetailers and food chains are opting out of traditional Christmas marketing channels in preference for the web. Reuters also reports that marketers believe 2009 will herald a new high for use of the SNS over the crucial Christmas period.

To reach loyal followers, marketers are reportedly gearing up to intensify their use of Twitter, Facebook et al.  Many are hoping to lure consumers with offers such as ‘free shipping and handling’ as well as loyalty vouchers.

Growing web-space

The SNS market is huge – Facebook alone has 300 million users – up from 250 million in July. In March, YouTube reached 100 million monthly viewers. In the US. 6.3 billion videos were viewed on the site.

According to Mashable.com there will be around 18 million Twitter users by the end of 2009.  Forrester Research reckons that by the end of 2009, spending on social media marketing in the US alone will reach £370 million in value. (Compare SNS stats)

For this year at least, the good news keeps on coming.  Shop.org’s study suggests that despite the credit crunch, over a third (37%) of consumers will shop more online when compared to last year . It also reveals 86% of UK online shoppers are shopping the same or more online overall compared to six months ago, citing trust (78%) and selection (70%) and value (70%) as the key reasons.  eBay Advertising  is predicting that  85%  will maintain or increase their online shopping.

Decreasing mind-space

However, From a brand forensics point of view, once the holiday season rush for online bargains is over – so boosting SNS popularity – there is a potential real and imminent danger that so much over exposure of brands overtly selling rather than informing and supporting surfers could lead to millions of SNS followers simply switching off.

According to Mashable.com, despite an incredible growth in 2008 of 422%, leading to a billion dollar valuation, over the past months, a full 60% of Twitter users who signed up, failed to return the following month.

Plans are now well under way to boost a sense of community sharing and so individual empowerment offered by Twitter. Such plans include ‘Project Retweting’.  (Retweeting is the practice of sharing interesting links and tweets on Twitter by adding “RT” plus the originator’s username at the start of the tweet.

Twitter is also being positioned as the new SMS to replace traditional text messaging.

According to a recent US survey by Robert Half Technology of 1,400 CIOs of companies with 100 or more employees, 54% now completely block employees from accessing social networking sites at work.

In conclusion: whilst Santa may be checking his list, surfers will checking to see if brands using SNS sites are being ‘naughty – not nice’.  And if their findings aren’t positive, in a world where the voice of the people isn’t just heard, but needs to be heeded, by this time next year brands could be looking forward to something far less festive than they are currently expecting.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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