Most consumer retail brands may have been battered by an economy in which said consumers are increasingly stingy with their money, but luxury brands have continued to make headway. While luxury products are not completely immune to an economic downturn, they have certainly weathered the storm better than most. That's because these are the brands that appeal to the upper echelon consumer who recognizes quality and is willing to pay for it.

But even in the luxury category, there are winners and losers, relatively speaking, which is something the Luxury Institute, a global research and CRM consulting company, studies quite carefully. The Luxury Institute analyzed more than five years of data from its surveys on dozens of luxury goods and services categories in an effort to identify "best practitioners" that have consistently scored above their competitors.

In handbags, a leading luxury category, the Institute found that "one brand stood alone in owning several critical metrics for brand vibrancy five years in a row." That brand is Coach.Continue reading...

Market research group Lab42 asked a question branding and marketing pros ask all the time: Is anyone even paying attention to advertising?

The three forms of advertising Lab42 focused on were online banner ads, ads in free phone apps, and ads in music streaming apps.

Some of the findings are expected (pop-ups are annoying!) while others are surprising (31 percent of respondents claimed to never fast-forward through commercials in DVR-ed programming). The survey findings in an eye-catching visual graphic:Continue reading...

Sixty-six percent of moms confess to hiding in the bathroom for alone time according to a recent survey commissioned by Procter & Gamble’s most iconic consumer brand, Ivory.

The national study canvassed more than 1,000 moms to garner insights ‘on the realities of their lives,’ and gave impetus to Ivory's new online social community, The Soap Dish, which is located at Ivory's Facebook page as a branded content/community partnership with Emmy award-winner actress and mom, Melissa McCarthy, whose star rocketed this year after her scene-stealing turn in Bridesmaids. 

"I grew up using Ivory and that smell always reminds me of when I was a kid," stated McCarthy in P&G's press release. "As a working mom of two, I love anything that simplifies my life. So when one bar of soap can handle backyard dirt, spaghetti hands, and the unidentified crusty bits under my girls' necks — I'm in."

“As part of Ivory's modern day makeover, which began with the unveiling of our new packaging design and advertising campaign, we sought to tap into the everyday opinions and attitudes of today’s busy mom,” said Jay Sethi, Ivory brand manager. “What we found was today’s moms have an unyielding desire for honest, down-to-earth, simple yet social connections with other women and moms.”Continue reading...

A strategic partnership to maximize social marketing ROI was just announced between comScore, Inc. and Buddy Media.

It’s a strategic alliance that leverages the outfits' respective digital skills: Buddy Media, known for its all-in-one social media management system for Facebook campaigns, and comScore, a global Internet information provider about consumer behavior driving successful marketing and sales strategies.

Clients using Buddy Media’s social marketing suite and comScore Social Essentials measurement service can now optimize social communications via owned media and quantify the impact of earned media with metrics including reach/frequency, demographics, online behavior and competitive benchmarking of brands.

“comScore’s partnership with Buddy Media provides ‘behind the wall’ access to exposure and engagement via their 2 million-strong opt-in panel, and opens up insights that then can be easily activated via Buddy Media’s tools,” wrote CEO Michael Lazerow on the Buddy Media blog.Continue reading...

With many markers of the health of the U.S. auto industry improving these days, J.D. Power & Associates brings us another one: Americans are more satisfied with the new-vehicle sales process than they were a year ago. Among the luxury brands that lead in this score, Lexus still ranks highest in the researcher's new Sales Satisfaction Index, although Cadillac is sneaking up, and Mini heads up mass-market brands.

The notion that financially strained Americans actually would be happier about the auto-dealership experience is contra-intuitive, given that this experience used to rank right above getting teeth pulled on many consumers' bucket lists. There's also the fact that there have been about four million fewer people in the U.S. new-vehicle market even this year, three years into an industry recovery, than during the market's heyday several years ago.Continue reading...

It used to be that car owners tended to stick with one brand for an extended period of time. You bought Toyota in 1975, you buy Toyota in 1997. You bought Ford in 1982, you buy Ford in 2011.

But times have changed and a new study shows that automotive brand loyalty is on the decline, while consumers simultaneously show a new love for whatever the latest multimedia technology happens to be, according to FOX 59.

“Research firm GfK Automotive's Automotive Intentions and Purchases study, a monthly survey dating back to the early 1980s, found 48 percent of respondents in 2011 plan to buy the same brand of car as they currently own,” FOX reports. “That's down 7 percentage points over the past decade.”

The loyalty factor is lowest in those aged 15-45, according to Doug Scott, a senior vice president at GfK. Scott also pointed out another GfK study that showed that those in Gen Y “placed gadgets ahead of cars among must-have needs,” which is the "first time ever that the car came in second." (What's more, those gadget-obsessed youths are disengaged on the job, too.)Continue reading...

Retailers always approach the holiday shopping season with a mixture of cautious optimism and trepidation. While this year will be no different, at least one market survey suggests American retailers may be able to breathe a small sigh of relief.

That's because American consumers will spend, on average, 17 percent more money than last year. Americans will spend an average of $831 on gifts this holiday season, $121 more than last year, according to the latest American Express Spending & Saving Tracker report.

But consumers will also be shopping smarter, taking advantage of strategies that will save them money. Pre-holiday shopping is expected to increase by 37 percent over last year. That's one reason Walmart is aggressively promoting its layaway program and pitching a "Christmas Price Guarantee."Continue reading...

As the American workforce continues to struggle with the lack of jobs, the overwork of those that do have jobs, and the lower salaries coming out companies as they ride out a difficult economic time, one of the many effects can be seen on the shelves of America’s grocery stores.

U.S. consumers are reaching into their wallets and shelling out for the brands they desire less than they were just four years ago, according to a new research report from comScore titled, “The Effects of the Recession on Brand Loyalty and ‘Buy Down’ Behavior.”  

“Buying down” is, of course, the fine art of buying a lower-priced brand than the one you actually desire, a situation that is becoming more and more the norm. In 2008, the study shows that 54% of respondents bought the brands they wanted.

This year, though, that number is down to 43%. Sorry to hear it, America.Continue reading...