Buyology's 20 Most Desired Brands List Shows Big Gender Gap

One of the world's leading strategic marketing companies, Buyology, Inc., has completed the first annual "Most Desired Brands in the U.S." report, ranking the top 20 brands for men and women. The company spent six years and $8 million on this survey and tested 240 global brands with more than 5,000 consumers. These efforts to measure and test how consumers relate to their favorite brands reflect Buyology's unique approach to marketing based on what it has trademarked as "Neurotypes," or "non-conscious relationships."

Buyology experts believe that understanding what drives the subconscious is a key part of determining why consumers remain loyal to a particular brand, despite the lower price or quality of its competitors. And since only 15% of our decisions are made consciously, it is the brand's relationship with its customers that becomes its "most important asset and its only sustainable advantage. Just as with cherished friends and family, a strong positive relationship will result in loyalty, forgiveness and advocacy while a negative relationship will result in mistrust, avoidance and animosity," which amounts to the company's motto.

Founding partner and Buyology President Donna Sturgess explains to dealnews that developing brand relationships based on gender is one of many data points useful to marketers in this research, along with age and ethnicity. "By recognizing that men and women may have a different responses to the brand," she says, "marketers are able to gain deeper insight into consumers' wants and desires in order to clarify and strengthen the consumer connection to drive the business."

Sturgess also says that Buyology used the results of the study to help their clients develop better marketing strategies. "Once a marketer Neurotypes a brand and measures the drivers underneath it, they have a high-definition view of the business that will clarify elements of strategy and execution," she says, adding, "In other words, it becomes simpler to recognize the things a brand should stop doing as well as start doing to increase the signal strength of the relationship they want to build."

While it may not be surprising that the survey indicates that car companies attract more men than women, or that Amazon made it to the top of the list for women and didn't even make the list for men, these results could have a remarkable impact in the market. Sturgess believes that "it's "important for marketers to dig deeper to understand their customers, particularly during a tough economy."

Whether or or not the survey proves that men like cars and women like shopping is up to our readers.

Top 20 Most Desired Brands in the World: Women

1. Johnson & Johnson
2. Sony
3. Kleenex
4. National Geographic
5. MasterCard
6. Google
7. Amazon
8. Visa
9. General Electric
10. Toshiba
11. Crest
12. Microsoft
13. Disney
14. Target
15. Tropicana
16. BMW
17. Febreze
18. Ford
19. Olay
20. Chase

1. Crest
2. BMW
3. National Geographic
4. Panasonic
5. Hyundai
6. Kleenex
7. Coca-Cola
8. Microsoft
9. Tide
10. Lexus
11. Apple
12. Bed Bath & Beyond
13. Ford
14. Animal Planet
15. Hitachi
16. Mercedes-Benz
17. FedEx
18. Procter & Gamble
19. Hallmark
20. Geico

Photo credit: Hikingartist.com