Branding is key to the success of any business, but getting it right isn’t easy. It requires strategy, creativity, and consistency.
That’s why we’ve compiled these 69 branding statistics that highlight the trends, best practices, and results of good and bad branding.
Key Takeaways:
- Brand consistency is very important to revenue
- Brand colors should be kept simple
- Employer branding is just as important as company branding
General Branding Statistics
Brand Consistency Increases Revenue by up to 33%
Consistent branding makes businesses more recognizable to new and existing customers. Studies show that when branding is consistent across all mediums, businesses can enjoy up to 33% higher revenues than businesses with inconsistent branding.
46% of U.S. Consumers Will Pay More for a Trusted Brand
It might take time to build consumer trust in your company or business, but it’s worth the effort as almost half of all consumers surveyed state that they are willing to pay more to a brand that they and the people around them trust. This trend can also be seen in different markets, with 44% of French consumers, 47% of British consumers, and 30% of German consumers all prepared to pay more for their most trusted brands.
Brand First Impressions Are Most Influenced by Visuals
Visual first impressions still account for a large portion of how we feel about any given object, person, or in this case, brand. Recent data shows that the visual element of your branding (logo design & color) accounts for around 55% of a consumer’s first impressions of your brand.
More than Half of Brand Reputation Comes from Socials
Social media plays an outsized role in most (if not all) successful brands’ marketing strategies, and there’s a good reason for this. Over 50% of a brand’s reputation is built through what people are saying about it online, so maintaining a strong social media presence that’s consistent with your branding is extremely important.
81% of Consumers Consider Brand Trust Before Making a Purchase
Consumers enjoy the so-called ability to “vote with their wallets,” and today they are doing so more than ever. Eight out of 10 consumers state that before making a purchasing decision, they consider how trustworthy a brand is. If they perceive a brand as lacking in trust or credibility, they would not make that purchase at all.
66% of Consumers Use a Brand’s Transparency as a Judging Tool
In today’s climate of seemingly never-ending misinformation and obfuscation of the facts, it shouldn’t surprise anyone reading this that consumers rate brand transparency as crucial to their purchasing decisions and one of the most attractive qualities of a brand. Two-thirds of consumers surveyed across multiple countries state that they use a brand’s transparency record as a way of judging whether to buy or support a brand.
64% of Consumers Use a Brand’s Stance on Social Issues to Decide Whether to Buy or Boycott
Consumers are no longer concerned with just getting the products they want for the lowest price possible; they also want brands to take a positive stance on various social and political issues. Almost two-thirds of consumers surveyed said that a brand’s public stance on important issues directly informs whether they should buy from or boycott the brand.
73% of Consumers Think a Brand’s Customer Service Is Important to Purchasing Decisions
For a large number of consumers, the quality of a brand’s customer service is an integral part of the purchasing decisions. If consumers have heard from a friend or family member or read about a brand having poor customer service online, 73% state that it could affect whether they become (or remain) a customer of that brand.
79% of Consumers Read User-Generated Content About Products Before Purchasing
While brands think that the majority of their branding and marketing is relevant and informational to consumers, consumers feel differently. 79% of those surveyed state that user-generated brand and product content such as reviews, critiques, and demonstrations is one of the most important factors in deciding whether to purchase from a particular brand.
82% of Investors Prefer Companies with a Strong Brand
Acquiring funding from investors is a pretty normal part of growing any kind of business. A part of the success or failure in finding investors for your business is the strength and perception of your brand. 82% of investors say that poor or low brand recognition and reputation are deciding factors in whether to invest or not.
Brand Trustworthiness Is Number 1 for 31% of Consumers
For 31% of consumers, their perception of just how trustworthy your brand is will be the most important aspect of whether to buy from you or remain loyal to your brand. For these consumers, a loss in your trustworthiness would likely lead them to use a different brand. In the U.S., this is even higher with approximately 40% of American consumers reporting that they’ve boycotted brands that they feel have acted irresponsibly.
77% of Brands Think Online Communities Boost Brand Identity & Awareness
Surveys of the marketing teams of various brands found that more than 7 out of 10 brands believe that building online communities around their brand (or a brand product) is integral to building better brand identity and awareness.
85% – 95% of Companies Have Branding Guidelines in Place
Consistent branding across multiple advertising mediums has a major effect on the popularity of your brand. Most companies seem to be aware of this with between 85% and 95% having formal branding guidelines in place.
60% of Companies Don’t Follow Branding Guidelines
Following on from the last statistic, despite the majority of businesses recognizing the importance of consistent branding and creating formal branding guidelines to help with this, the majority (60%) admit that some materials “always, often, or sometimes” fail to follow those guidelines.
52% – 60% of Consumers Reject Brands with Bad Brand Aesthetics
Consistent branding isn’t the only thing that companies should be worried about. Getting the look of your branding just right is also integral to your brand’s overall success. Recent studies have shown that anything from 52% – 60% of consumers will reject a brand based on whether they perceive your branding to look “weird” or “unappealing”.
Rebranding Costs ~5%–20% of Annual Marketing Budget
There are many reasons that a business may wish to rebrand, such as entering a new market, expanding product lines, crisis recovery, updating the company vision, and more. Whatever the reason for rebranding, the costs shouldn’t be underestimated. Various studies show that the average cost can be anything from 5% – 20% of your annual marketing budget.
5–7 Impressions Before Consumers Remember Your Brand
For brands to become instantly recognizable, it requires consumers to see it more than once. In fact, on average, it will take consumers between 5 and 7 times before they start to recognize it. That’s why consistent branding and making sure your business is advertised across multiple channels is so important.
Consumers Will Pay Up to 50% More if They Believe Your Brand Makes Positive Impact
For brand loyalists, price is only one part of the decision-making process. Your brand values and whether consumers think of your brand as a force for positive change within society are also important. Approximately 13% of consumers report that they’d be willing to pay between 31% and 50% more to do business with brands they think are attempting to be a force for good. There are even 11% that are prepared to pay 51% or more!
48% – 73% of Consumers Prefer Brands That Personalize Their Marketing
The days of one-size fits all marketing have long passed. Now more than ever, consumers expect the advertising experience to be personalized to the individual. The latest studies and surveys on this show that as much as 73% of people prefer personalized advertising.
77% of B2B Marketers Agree Branding Helps a Company’s Growth
In the field of business-to-business marketing, closing sales isn’t considered the most crucial factor in a company’s growth. According to 77% of B2B marketers, the key to a company’s growth is having the right branding.
Music Can Increase Brand Favorability for Half Your Consumers
If you were told to think of McDonald’s or Maybelline, there’s a good chance that the brand’s music would go through your head. Studies have shown that approximately half of all consumers are able to identify brands with music associated with them better than those without it.
Music can also evoke a variety of feelings in people, and as such it should be an important consideration when building branding for your business. The same studies mentioned above also showed that consumers have a higher opinion of brands that have music associated with them and are more likely to make a purchase from those brands.
77% of Consumers Use Brand Names Rather than Product Names
Good branding can be so effective that when it’s done correctly, consumers will often refer to products by their brand name rather than the object name (think of Cola vs Coke, hot tubs vs Jacuzzi, sellotape vs Scotch Tape). Obviously, this would be the ideal scenario for any brand owner, and the good news is that if you do get your branding right, then 77% of consumers will refer to your products by your brand name too.
72% of Top Brand Names Are Made-up Words or Acronyms
Making your brand name memorable should be one of a business owner’s primary goals. However, your brand name doesn’t need to be a real word or even a word at all. In fact, of the most successful brands in the world, around 7 out of every 10 use acronyms or made-up words.
Amazon Is Most Valuable Brand in the World
The Apple and Google brand names have been fighting for supremacy in the technology space ever since the introduction of the first Android smartphone in 2008. During that time, the Apple brand has enjoyed a slight advantage over its Google rival, consistently being named the most valuable brand in the world. Recent valuations, however, show that Apple has dropped down to number 2 in the rankings of the most valuable brands in the world, with Amazon surging to the top of the rankings with its $299.28 billion brand valuation, compared to Apple’s $297.51 billion.
The BYD Brand Had the Largest Valuation Increase in 2023
The Chinese brand BYD had the largest growth in brand value of any brand in the world, with an improvement of 57%. This took its valuation up to $10.1 billion.
54% of Consumers Want More Video Content from Brands They Follow
Video content is typically more engaging than any written word can be, evident in data taken from a recent survey that asked respondents to choose the type of content that they’d like to see their favorite brands produce more of. The majority (54%) chose videos as their preferred content type, while the second most popular was emails/newsletters, and blog articles were the desired content by just 18% of those surveyed.
74% of Consumers Avoid Advertising
Most consumers are now proactively avoiding advertising where it’s possible for them to do so. The use of ad blockers, skipping ads, and paying for ad-free experiences have all increased meaning your brand advertising needs to be on a wide range of platforms and across mediums to ensure your brand is getting the exposure it needs to grow.
Use of Bright Colors
Following on from 2+ years of negative news stories about covid, restrictions, wars, economic stagnation and decline, and societal issues, the public is craving something with a bit of positivity. One way brands can tap into that is through the use of bright and bold colors. Bright, bold colors tend to make people think and feel more positively, and branding experts are predicting this will be the year of bright branding.
Making the Audience Feel Nostalgic
Another thing the public craves is the so-called “good old days.” People tend to think back on an earlier time with a more positive outlook than they would have had at that time. This feeling of nostalgia will be incredibly important to branding this year since it aims to give both existing and new consumers positive feelings about past trends and practices.
More Personalized Branding
The era of hyper-personalized branding is upon us. Personalized branding has always existed, and good marketers have been personalizing marketing and branding opportunities by group for years. This year the very best brands are breaking those consumer groups down even further and some will even tailor their branding and marketing to the individual level.
Humanized Branding
Branding standards are gradually moving to a more humanized version than past examples. Consumers want brands to mean and stand for something more than just profit. The best brands have taken note of this and have already or will be changing their branding to meet this trend. That’s why this year will be the year of humanized branding, with brands trying to become more relatable and personable with the consumers they wish to do business with.
Sustainable Branding
Following on from the trend above, consumers don’t want their favorite brands to just be about the products and services that they sell, they also want their favorite brands to stand up for the societal and environmental issues that are important to them. The best brands will recognize that consumers have en masse started to reject the idea that businesses should ignore important issues in the pursuit of profit and will make sure that their brand clearly demonstrates how they are helping society rather than just their shareholders.
Employer Branding Statistics
Good Branding Can Reduce Hiring & Training Costs by 50%
Good branding doesn’t just help to get customers in the door; it also helps with the cost of getting employees in, too. Companies with good branding will typically enjoy 50% more applicants and reduced training costs than those companies with poor branding. This is because employees will research your brand before they even consider applying for a position in your company, and high-value brands with a good reputation are considered more desirable employers. On top of that, companies with the right branding will find it easier to find employees that require less training.
Up to 69% of U.S. Workers Would Not Work for a Brand with a Poor Reputation
If the reputation of your brand wasn’t important enough already, studies have shown that anything from 50% up to 69% of potential job candidates will abandon a job application to your company if they see bad reviews or believe you have a negative or poor reputation. Some studies have shown that it doesn’t end there either, with around half of the people surveyed stating that they would leave a company even if they had just been hired if they found out the company’s brand was bad in some way.
Companies with Poor Branding Have to Pay Higher Salaries
Another negative consequence of poor branding is higher salary costs. For a company with poor branding to attract the kind of talent that it wants or needs, it will need to pay on average 10% higher salaries than a comparable company with great branding in order to be able to attract and retain desirable employees.
92% of Employees Would Leave Their Current Job for a Position at a Bigger Brand
Surveys show that your brand reputation matters just as much to your employees as it does to your consumers. It matters so much in fact that more than 9 out of 10 employees say that they would have no problem leaving their current employer if a bigger brand with a better reputation asked them to switch companies even if the pay was lower. On top of that, 50% said that they wouldn’t stay at their current employer even if they were offered a significant pay increase by their current employer.
59% of Recruitment Leaders Want to Invest More in Employer Branding
Employer branding is how potential employees perceive your company or business as a whole and what it would be like to work for you. Almost 60% of recruitment leaders would like companies to invest more than they currently do in creating and formalizing employer branding guidelines to help with the recruitment process.
Good Employer Branding Can Increase Employee Productivity by 300%
Good employer branding effectively relays to the public what it is that makes your business unique to work for and displays the company culture and vision. This branding is important to your employees’ productivity, too. When employees feel that your branding is honest, is what they see while working for you, and resonates with them personally, then they are far more likely to be engaged with their work and employers enjoy improved productivity.
~34% of U.S. Consumers Will Boycott a Brand if They Learn of Poor Employee Treatment
Surprisingly, this is one figure that seems to have lowered in the last few months: at one point, the data showed this number to be higher than 60%. However, that is still a third of your consumers that would be willing to boycott your brand completely if they were to learn that you were treating your employees unfairly.
75% of Workers Research Employer’s Brand Before Applying
Employers should be aware that their brands are being researched by potential employees online before they even submit an application for a job. Roughly 70% of Millennials check a company’s social media channels before applying, while around 50% – 60% of Gen-Xers and Boomers do the same. Three-quarters of all candidates report that they do this before accepting any job offer, too.
70% of Job Seekers Will Change Their Minds if Brands Respond Well to Criticism
The good news for brands that have a bad reputation is that it doesn’t have to be permanent. If the public can see that you have tried to constructively address the criticism and are working to address any issues that your company has, then 70% of those looking for employment would change their mind about your brand and consider applying for a position in your company.
Logo & Color Branding Statistics
Using a Signature Color Can Increase Brand Recognition by 80%
As we discussed earlier, brand consistency is key to building awareness and recognition of your company. One way that you can help achieve this is through the use of a signature color that carries across all advertising channels and mediums. For instance, when you think of Facebook or IBM, you might think of the color blue; if you think of Coca-Cola or H&M, you might think of the color red. This signature color is usually a particular shade that is unique to the brand: by reinforcing that color across all branding, consumers will be 80% more likely to recognize your company.
22% – 33% Boost in Revenue with Consistent Branding
Inconsistent branding across platforms is an issue that many brands face and many may not be aware of the problems it can cause for consumers and by extension, the difference it can make to revenue sheets. Depending on the source used, consistently branding your product or company across all mediums and channels can increase revenue by up to 33%!
60% of Consumers Avoid Brands with “Weird” or “Unappealing” Logo Designs
Even if you have good products and services, consumers will avoid your brand if they feel that your company has a weird or unappealing logo design. Even if your brand has many great reviews, bad logo design will keep consumers away. Do you remember this logo from the hugely successful clothing brand Gap? No? Well, that’s because consumers thought it was weird and unappealing. A week after launch, Gap was forced to revert to its classic logo design. The failed logo design ended up costing the business a reported $100 million in costs and lost sales.
Most Companies Make Minor Updates to Branding Every 7 – 10 Years
Choosing the right logo design and branding that fits the brand identity and values while easily identifiable to consumers is a tough task; once a company has made that choice, it may be tempted to stick with those choices forever. It might also seem to consumers that some brands never change their branding. The truth is that most successful companies make minor updates to their logos every 7 to 10 years to make sure that they fit with the current trends.
95% of the Top 100 Brands Use 1 or 2 Colors
When deciding what colors to use in your branding, keeping it simple and only using 1 or 2 colors is the preferred choice for 95 out of the top 100 brands in the world. Only 3 out of the 100 use 4 or more colors.
30% of Top Brands Use Blue in Their Logo
Following on from the last statistic, the most commonly used color amongst the top brands in the world is black (Adidas, Prada, Sony, L’Oréal, Louis Vuitton). The other most popular choices are blue (Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, Ford, Visa) and red (Coca-Cola, Netflix, CNN, Lego, Nintendo).
90% of Consumer Feelings About Products Is Based on Color
Diving deeper into the psychology of brand colors, research has shown that the way consumers feel about a brand is primarily driven by the colors used and the associations we have with specific colors. The amount that the color dictates a consumer’s feelings about a brand varies, but some studies show that color alone can affect our opinion of a brand 90% of the time.
Small Businesses Will Pay $500 for Logo Design
Despite the design of your business logo being so important to how well consumers think of and remember your brand, data shows that many small businesses (67%) are only willing to pay up to $500 for the design, and only about 20% are willing to pay over $1,000.
BBC Spent $1.8 Million on Logo Redesign
Logo design costs can vary by wild amounts from company to company. For instance, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) spent close to $2 million on their redesign, one of the most expensive in the world. The other side of that is a company like Coca-Cola, who got their logo for free.
People Will Retain 65% of the Information They Learn when Paired with Imagery
Yet another reason to get professional branding is the fact that people retain information better when it’s paired with imagery. Research has shown that the average person retains around 65% of the information three days after seeing it when it’s paired with an appropriate image.
9% of Brands Don’t Include Company Name in Logo
Some brands are so well known that they don’t even need the company name in their logo (Starbucks, Nike, Apple, Shell). But these are brands that are already so big and have so much brand awareness built up already that they don’t need to include it in their logo. For the rest of us, it pays to include your brand name in your logo since this makes it easier for consumers to remember you, which is why only 9% of brands worldwide opt to leave it out.
94% of the Globe’s Population Recognizes Coca-Cola Logo
When done right, your brand’s logo will be instantly recognizable to the vast majority of consumers, and often consumers won’t even need to see the whole logo in order to be able to tell the brand it represents. The Coca-Cola logo is one example of such a logo with close to the entire planet’s population (94%) being able to recognize it.
Content Branding Statistics
User-Generated Content Impacts 85% of Consumer Purchasing Decisions
User-generated content (UGC) is original, brand-specific content created by customers, typically with no input from the brand, and posted to social media. This type of brand marketing is typically more valuable than any branding or marketing campaigns that a brand can run itself, as consumers typically trust what other customers say about a product more than the brand itself. It’s so influential to consumer buying decisions that between 80% and 85% of consumers say UGC has an important role in any purchasing decision they make.
Content Marketing Generates 3X More Leads than Outbound Marketing
Part of building your brand is gaining an audience that is interested in the products or services that you sell. Traditional marketing has been the way to do that for generations, but it involves you reaching out to customers who may not want to be reached. Today’s brands don’t need to pay for expensive ads or call consumers at home; instead, the most effective way to build brand recognition and generate sales is to use content marketing (blogs, e-books, infographics, etc.) which has proven to be 3 times more effective at generating sales leads.
70% of Consumers Prefer Blogs over Regular Advertising
Following on from that last statistic is the fact that 70% of consumers prefer blog content over traditional advertising. If content marketing generates 3 times more sales leads than traditional marketing does, it follows that blog content is preferred over regular advertising by most consumers.
Email Marketing Is 40x More Effective at Reaching New Customers than Facebook & Twitter
Despite the boom in social media marketing in recent years and its ability to create a viral sensation overnight, email marketing is still the most effective. Marketing data shows that email marketing is 40 times more effective at reaching new customers than Facebook and Twitter. This is driven in large part by many people’s social media feeds being filled with only the content that they are already subscribed to or interested in. Email marketing offers brands the opportunity to reach customers that wouldn’t typically engage with them on other platforms and can be personalized to the individual, unlike a social media campaign.
91% of Marketers Think Their Content Is “Authentic;” 51% of Consumers Believe over Half Is Inauthentic
Authenticity is integral to a brand’s overall success. It doesn’t matter what the brand’s values and target audience are (to a degree), but the brand has to be perceived as authentic for the public to buy into what the brand is selling. Studies show that marketers believe more than 90% of the content they produce for brands is authentic. The public disagrees with that sentiment strongly, with around 50% of consumers thinking that half of brand content is inauthentic.
78% of Consumers Prefer Brands That Create Custom Content
Personalization is the key to building better brand awareness and trust and this can be seen in this statistic. Brands that use custom instead of generic content enjoy a better reputation with approximately 8 out of 10 consumers. 78% of consumers say they feel a bond with businesses that use custom-built content, 82% say they have a better opinion of brands after reading their custom content, and about 70% say that they prefer to read about the brand rather than see adverts about them
Personal Branding Statistics
93% of Consumers Trust Recommendations from People They Know
Consumers overwhelmingly prefer to trust brand recommendations from friends, family, and the people that they know. More than 90% of consumers say that they would consider purchasing from a brand based on a recommendation from someone they know. This applies to even the biggest name brands in the world, with only 33% – 38% of consumers trusting the messaging from brands.
54% of Employers Make Hiring Decisions Based on a Candidate’s Social Media Profile
Unfortunately, the professional and private life divide has been slowly eroded over the last 20 years. That means what you say online can have a lasting impact on your professional career in ways that it couldn’t in the past. Today’s research shows that over half of employers and recruiters state that they review a candidate’s social media profile before they make any hiring decisions. Slightly more worrying is the statistic that 47% of companies say they are unlikely to hire someone who doesn’t have a social media presence.
Leads from Employees’ Social Media Convert 7x More Frequently
Not only do your employees have more connections than your company does, but leads generated by your employees’ social media channels are around 7 times more likely to convert into a sale. On top of that, your brand message will be shared 24 times more often if it’s shared by an employee rather than by your company channel.
Employees Have 10x More Followers than Their Employers
This is of course calculated as a collective, so if your company has 1,000 followers, collectively your employees have around 10,000 connections through social media. This means that companies that are able to effectively implement employee advocacy on their behalf have the potential to increase their market reach 10x overnight!
Companies with Senior Management That’s Active on Social Media Is Trusted by 82% of Consumers
Just as employers are researching potential employees’ social media accounts before hiring them, consumers are researching the social media accounts of the senior management of brands. Consumers want to know what the decision-makers are doing and how they think in relation to themselves and the people they know. Studies show that the more active that senior management is on social media, the more that consumers trust the brands.
53% of Sellers Lose Orders Because of Poor Branding or Missing Information
More than half of online sellers state that they have lost orders because of poor branding choices or because customers were unable to find the brand information they were looking for. This shows that businesses are aware of the issues they are having with poor branding decisions that can easily be rectified by using a branding agency or employing a brand management team.
7 out of 10 Instagram Hashtags Are Branded
Instagram is still a priority space for marketers and advertisers due to its relatively high user base, the visual format, and its ability to engage with the audience. Nothing shows just how important Instagram is to business like the fact that 7 out of 10 hashtags are branded.
Consumers Take 0.05 Seconds to Form an Opinion of Your Brand
Consumers can form an opinion about your brand or website in a surprisingly short amount of time, with the average amount of time being about 50 milliseconds. If consumer opinion of your brand or website is low, the good news is that it isn’t set in stone and can be changed through creative, strategic, and “honest” rebranding.
80% of Consumers Ignore Website & Search Engine Ads (43% Feel Like Buying After Viewing an Ad on Instagram)
If you didn’t know already, stop wasting company money on those search engine-sponsored ads. 80% of internet users completely ignore them, and the 20% that do click on them are typically in the older internet user demographic and unaware of what exactly they are clicking on. Not your ideal customer. One place where people will view ads pretty willingly is on Instagram. The short video and image format of the network makes it an ideal place to advertise to the public without it feeling intrusive. This is shown in the data too, with almost half (43%) of people surveyed saying that they feel an urge to buy after viewing ads on their feed.
47% of Consumers That Follow Brands on Social Media Are More Likely to Visit the Brand’s Website
Ultimately, the goal of most businesses is to get consumers to go to their brand website and make a purchase of some kind with them. For almost half the consumers out there, they are almost twice as likely to visit your brand website if you’re able to convince them to follow your brand’s social media channels.
Frequently Asked Question
How Effective Is Branding?
Branding is an important aspect of any successful business since it raises brand awareness and can make it easier for consumers to recognize your products and services. However, the effectiveness of branding depends on the quality of the branding.
How Long Does Branding Last?
Branding can last forever if done well; however, the most successful brands in the world will make minor adjustments to their branding every 7 – 10 years.
What Is the Most Important Thing About Branding?
The most important thing about branding is its ability to differentiate your business from your competitors and its ability to grab consumers’ attention and to be remembered by them later.
How Does Branding Affect Sales?
Branding consistently across platforms and mediums can boost sales by up to 33%.
Sources
In addition to our own research, we’ve used parts of data from U.S. Chamber of Commerce, LinkedIn, Insider Intelligence, Hubspot, Marq, Edelman, Content Marketing Institute.
