Scoring brands’ standing in culture

Cultural resonance is more long-lasting than fleeting cultural relevance and amplifies over time, concludes a new study that scored brands on their resonance* and offered the prospect of measuring the impact of marketing activities on this metric. 

What is cultural resonance? 

The cultural resonance concept developed by The Marketing Arm (TMA) is built not merely through awareness, but through four pillars:

• Recognition: audiences have clarity of the brand’s role in the consumer’s world
• Alliance: that brand point-of-view is meaningful to the audience
• Engagement: the audience is so engaged with the brand that they spend time with it
• Advocacy: there is active participation within the brand’s community, magnifying its message to the world

Why cultural resonance matters 

TMA’s Cultural Resonance Score measures both a brand’s standing in culture and identifies actions that can be taken to improve a brand’s cultural resonance, thereby driving growth.

Brands with the highest Cultural Resonance Score grew 25% more than their competitors last year, according to TMA, with the top three culturally resonant brands in its study growing at twice the rate of their competition. 

Takeaways 

• Amazon, Google and Crayola are the three most resonant brands, followed by Apple and Target, when looking at the total population over age 18. 
• The five most resonant brands to Gen Z are: YouTube, Apple, Marvel, Target and Google.
• Chocolate, video games and toys are the top culturally resonant categories, followed closely by e-commerce retailers and pet care products. 
• Cultural Resonance Scores yield insights about specific categories. Within autos, for example, trucks are more culturally resonant than sedans.

*Cultural Resonance Scores are based on real-time collection, analysis, and measurement of 130+ consumer-based metrics across 4,000+ brands in 200+ sectors globally.

Sourced from The Marketing Arm