The One Word Branding Test

on Nov 25 in Internet Marketing, SEO, Traditional Marketing by Andy Chimicles

Brands are always dying to know what customers think of them. I came across a site that tells them just that – brandtags.net. It shows you a brand logo and you respond with a word or phrase that pops into your head. You can then see what other people said in a “tag cloud” format, ie. more popular terms are displayed in a larger font. A very simple idea, but its simplicity is its value to marketers.

Many of the brands show what you’d expect – for Wallgreens I thought “drugs” and sure enough the majority also thought this, along with “drug store,” “pharmacy,” and “cheap.” If Walgreens is trying to position themselves as cheap then they are doing a good job. If not, then their Brandtags should tell them that they are off course.

For Jack in the Box I noted “fat”, which based on the font size was an average response. I would love to see the responses trended over time, ie. do less people think “fat” now than 6 months ago; is JIB’s health initiatives paying off?

Then there are the brands like Midevil Times – I immediately thought about that scene in Cable Guy where Jim Carrey jousts Matthew Broderick. Sure enough I wasn’t the only one. Based on the font size, “Cable Guy” is the most popular term to come to mind when thinking about Midevil Times. Not to say that their marketing people weren’t aware of this phenomenon in the past, but they should definitely understand how big of an impact this has been on their brand.

The results are interesting and sometimes entertaining, and I’d venture to say a lot of brands would really value the results. As opposed to focus groups where people say what they think they should say, you can infer that these results are honest because of the anonymity of the process. And much like search engine keyword research, the results can give you an unobstructed lens into the minds of your customers.

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Author: Andy Chimicles

Internet marketer, website developer, musician, producer, photographer, lover

This author's website address is http://www.andychimicles.com

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