Good branding is one of the most important aspects of a successful long-term business. It’s how customers start to relate to your products, and it’s how you retain and develop a long-term affinity with them.
In today’s competitive landscape, there will always be other businesses with similar products targeting the same markets. Differentiation comes down to brand image. That’s why businesses are investing a lot more time, effort, and money into perfecting it.
Standing out and developing brand affinity is tough. Regardless of whether you’re a local business or running a multinational enterprise, it’s important to understand the current state of branding and where things are headed.
We collected 10 important branding statistics and trends to help put things into perspective.Â
Let’s dive right in.
1. Only 17% of US businesses consider deploying a brand as an enterprise-wide strategy a top priority (Source)
Meanwhile, 36% of companies prioritize accelerating toward getting new digital capabilities and 30% consider collaborating across departments for new initiatives and expanding into new markets a priority.
Most companies are starting to realize the importance of being present on multiple digital platforms and how important providing convenience is today.Â
Therefore, a lot of them focus on doing that while driving new initiatives to become successful in those digital environments. Expanding into new markets is a priority for most businesses looking to scale.
While deploying a brand is just as important as things that rank higher on the list, it isn’t a priority for most. That’s because a lot of businesses focus on individual products and services and developing individual brands instead of enterprise-level brands like Apple.
That said, not every company can become a brand like that, especially if they have an extremely diverse portfolio.
More companies need to adopt an enterprise-wide strategy to build and maintain their organizational brand name.
2. Amazon is the world’s most valuable brand, despite losing almost $51 billion in value in 2022 (Source)
Amazon took over Apple’s position as the most valuable brand in 2022. Apple is now the second most valuable brand, followed by Google in the third position. Amazon lost almost 15% of its value from $350.3 billion to $299.3 billion.
The primary reason for this devaluation is that Amazon’s brand rating went from AAA+ to AAA after harsher post-pandemic evaluations by consumers. People have become less likely to recommend Amazon to others and public perception of Amazon’s customer service has fallen.Â
Increased delivery times and a boom in in-person shopping also play a role.Â
Apple, on the other hand, lost $57.6 billion in value the same year. The company lost 16% of its brand value from $355.1 billion to $297.5 billion. The reason was a fall in forecasted revenue due to constrained labor markets and disrupted supply chains.
On the other hand, the EV market is rapidly expanding and booming. This has made Tesla and BYD among the world’s fastest-growing brands.
Tesla’s brand value increased by 44% to $66.2 billion while BYD saw its brand value increase by 57% to $10.1 billion.
In addition, there were 48 tech and med tech brands in the top 500.
3. From 2022 to 2023, BYD had the highest brand value change at 57%, followed by ConocoPhillips at 56% and Maersk at 53% (Source)
Meanwhile, Alibaba had the most negative brand value change at -56%. The massive business-to-consumer e-commerce platform took a hit due to the pandemic, which caused major disruptions in their nationwide business operations.
This led Alibaba to let go of almost 10,000 of its employees in the last two years.
Alibaba has lost 47% of its brand value over the last three years. However, Volvo and Country Garden have lost the most brand value, each losing 48% in the last three years.
They’re followed by both Airbnb and Alibaba and then Renault at 45%.
On the flip side, Tesla has had the most growth in brand value with a 433% increase in the last three years. They’re followed by AMD at 379% and Nvidia at 264%.
In the last three years, the EV market and the computer tech sector have been booming. This explains Tesla and BYD’s massive growth, along with Nvidia and AMD’s growth.Â
While these companies are nowhere near the top share of companies, they’re expected to reach that level as the world shifts toward an EV-first policy and as IoT becomes more common.
4. The tech sector has the highest share of brand value among the world’s top 500 brands with 14.8% at $1.181 trillion (Source)
The tech sector is followed by the retail and banking sectors at 13.2% and 12.3% respectively.Â
The tech sector includes major smartphone, computer accessories, online tools, and med tech companies. There are a total of 48 tech brands in the top 500.
Here’s how the other industries are faring:
- The retail sector accounts for 13.2% of the value at $1.06 trillion with 51 brands.Â
- The banking sector accounts for 12.3% at $986.5 billion with 71 brands.Â
- In the fourth position, the media sector accounts for 9.7% at $774.6 billion with 25 brands.
- The telecoms industry has a 6.7% share at $537.5 billion with 30 brands.Â
- That’s followed by the automobile industry, accounting for 6.6% at $530.4 billion with 27 brands.
- The engineering and construction industry accounts for 4.5% at $359 billion with 31 brands.
- It’s followed by the insurance sector with 4.3% at $347.3 billion with 29 brands.
- In the ninth position, the oil and gas sector accounts for 4.1% at $331.1 billion with 23 brands.
- All other industries account for the other 23.7% at $1.896 trillion with 165 brands.
The total brand value of the world’s top 500 brands comes to around $8.003 trillion, accounting for 7.5% of the global economy.
5. There is a rising trend of hybrid commerce where growth is powered by a mix of online and offline shopping (Source)
Both online and brick-and-mortar sales have grown significantly in the past two years. However, the massive growth in brick-and-mortar sales is due to the return of in-person shopping after the pandemic.
In fact, people are shopping in person more than they were before. This is why massive online e-commerce companies like Amazon have seen a downward trend in their growth rates.
Of course, people are still utilizing online portals to buy things. This leads to the trend of hybrid commerce.
According to the IAB report, approximately 75% of consumers are now shopping with a fusion of both online and offline methods.
The survey found that 77% of consumers tend to research what they want to buy online and then purchase it offline.
In 2019, 38% of people made purchases from their phones while physically present in the retail outlet. That number increased to 51% in 2022.
That same year, 42% of consumers made purchases on their phones while in a physical store from another retailer’s website. This number climbed to 58% in 2022.Â
The study also found that 40% of consumers tend to buy online and pick up from the store.
6. 39% of weekly media hours is user-created content, 38% is streaming services and TV content, and 22% is other traditional studio media (Source)
This shift toward a creator economy is forcing brands to reevaluate their branding and marketing efforts and channels. This is leading to more brands adopting a social-first marketing strategy.Â
As Instagram and TikTok become more popular, brands are starting to work with social media influencers, YouTubers, and streamers to keep up.Â
This is also why a lot of brands are releasing podcasts, custom music, and videos.Â
Traditional TV content and subscription-based streaming apps are nearly as important as user-created content. This has led to brands adopting new avenues of content generation.
Platforms like Netflix, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime Video are adapting popular books, video games, and other IPs.
Other traditional studio media, like music from large publishers and studios, are becoming less popular.
7. 15% of businesses have no brand guidelines across their organization, 23% have them only for creative teams, and 13% don’t use them because they don’t know where to find them (Source)
Meanwhile, 19% of businesses have followed brand guidelines some of the time and 30% have established their guidelines across their organizations.
These numbers are troubling because it means that 70% of all organizations don’t have strong brand guidelines to follow, and they’re putting little effort into fixing that.
This not only leads to less success with consumers, but it also causes internal problems such as lack of confidence in the company, lower retention rates, and low employee engagement.
Brand guidelines allow employees to identify with their organization and represent it consistently within those guidelines. They also help consumers better identify the brand.
A lack of brand guidelines means less success across the organization. In fact, 33% of businesses that have brand consistency say it contributed to 20% or more revenue growth. Meanwhile, 35% claim that it led to 10-20% revenue growth.
Companies that have established brand guidelines but don’t use them properly need to make an active effort to do so. These companies also need to revise and update their guidelines based on their processes, vision, and brand.
8. 46% of US consumers are ready to pay more for brands they trust and are familiar with compared to 30% in 2021 (Source)
Meanwhile, 30% pay more if they’re getting a reduced shipping cost, 29% pay more for quicker deliveries, and 18% pay more if the product has better product images or videos.
Of the US consumers surveyed:
- 13% are willing to pay more if there’s more information available.
- 16% will pay more if there are no-hassle returns.
- 8% tend to pay more for the first product listed.
The study also found that most US consumers tend to research a company’s reputation before buying their product.
Also among US consumers:
- 54% look for information on product quality.
- 42% tend to focus on customer service.
- 32% rely on consumer opinions and reviews.Â
- 41% said better quality images and product descriptions were among the top three reasons for choosing where to shop.
- 46% said they abandon a product or company if there isn’t sufficient product information.Â
The study also found that 70% of US consumers are more likely to buy from a product page that’s personally relevant to them.
9. Social media has the highest impact on consumer brand sentiment, followed by search engine advertising and content marketing (Source)
Organizations’ social media efforts have a significant impact on building positive or negative brand sentiment.
Social media strategies allow businesses to increase brand awareness, connect with consumers, and influence consumer attitudes. They allow them to get raw feedback on their products and services in real time.
Other top marketing channels include search engine advertising and content marketing. Search engine advertising includes pay-per-click (PPC), such as Google Ads, and content marketing efforts include blogs, emails, videos, infographics, and other forms of direct content.
All of these efforts collectively improve consumer brand sentiment and awareness.
10. 53.3% of marketers believe that a lack of budget holds them back from building their brand awareness (Source)
Other reasons include a lack of marketing resources for 30% and a lack of practical knowledge for 10%.
The study also found:
- 80% of respondents think their company CEO understands the importance of branding.
- 76.7% believe the idea of branding is to differentiate your product from the competitors.
- Content marketing was the most popular among brand-building activities, including blogs, videos, podcasts, and whitepapers. However, the study also found it’s not the most effective tool.
Companies should regularly reevaluate how their budget is being used and what marketing strategy would provide them with the best results.
Conclusion
A lot of companies focus their efforts on market expansion, sales qualification, and direct marketing. While it’s important to invest resources into these things, it’s equally important to focus on building a long-term brand.
First, it’s important to connect your teams, data, and processes. For example, if you’re in the healthcare industry, a healthcare CRM can improve client relationships and operational efficiency, as well as surface new opportunities. This gives you a solid foundation so you can focus on establishing your brand.
If you’re wondering where to start, these branding statistics and trends should give you an idea of what to do.
The most important thing is to develop your brand guidelines. If you already have them, maintain them and make an active effort to deploy them.
After that, focus your marketing efforts on creating more brand awareness, loyalty, and eventually affinity.
