{"id":225202,"date":"2020-05-13T09:21:09","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T03:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qcsglobal.com\/?p=225202"},"modified":"2020-05-13T09:21:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T03:51:09","slug":"people-choosing-trusted-brands-but-marketers-are-pulling-brand-campaigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/people-choosing-trusted-brands-but-marketers-are-pulling-brand-campaigns\/","title":{"rendered":"People choosing trusted brands, but marketers are pulling brand campaigns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Should marketers be investing in top-of-funnel campaigns or performance advertising right now? That question is being hotly debated in a lot of places, including major earnings reports<\/a> where performance seems to be winning.<\/p>\n

Making the case for brand. <\/strong>New consumer data from Survata<\/a> makes a strong case for brand marketing and argues that trusted brands are winning during the pandemic. The survey also contains interesting findings about messaging and what consumers want to hear from brands right now.<\/p>\n

Survata polled 1,016 U.S. adults on shopping behavior and brand expectations. The company found a strong preference for established brands over private labels or generics in a number of product categories. This seems at least partly at odds with another of the survey\u2019s findings: almost two-thirds (64%) of consumers are cutting back on spending in a significant way.<\/p>\n

Watch Live with Search Engine Land: Top vs. bottom of the funnel markteing now<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Brand preference despite spending reductions. <\/strong>According to Survata, \u201cIn previous periods of economic uncertainty, generic products have performed better compared to their brand-name counterparts because consumers aren\u2019t willing to pay a premium.\u201d That doesn\u2019t seem to be as true in this unprecedented instance, despite consumer-spending cutbacks.<\/p>\n

In numerous product categories (cleaning products, frozen food, coffee, soda and packaged foods) consumers indicated they were much more likely to choose familiar brands. In non-prescription medication and personal care products, however, the audience was more evenly divided with a somewhat higher percentage choosing generics or store brands, presumably to save money.<\/p>\n

Consumers becoming more cautious, selective. <\/strong>Multiple recent surveys indicate that consumers are cancelling or delaying purchases in the current economic climate. This is not unexpected but still very worrisome because 70% of U.S. GDP is driven by consumer buying and critical to any recovery. Survata found one quarter of respondents intended to cut spending by 30% \u2013 40%, and one in five said they will reduce their budgets by 50% or more.<\/p>\n

In contrast to consumer spending cutbacks, major tech company earnings and IAB survey data reflect that advertiser spending recovered a bit in April<\/a> causing investors to celebrate. However budges are still short of plan and nothing like at pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n

Brand messages consumers want to hear. <\/strong>The Survata research also explored consumer expectations of brands and what messages they wanted to hear. There are also some surprises here too:<\/p>\n