Your Pal Mal

Gen Y's 15 Most Trusted Brands?

(via jessenovak)

Though I may have had the day off today, that doesn’t mean my brain wasn’t on branding.  Thanks to my superb lurking skills, I was able to catch a glimpse of this “study” $mart genius Jesse Novak posted.

I spent some time on Outlaw’s website (who takes credit for the research behind this list.)  While the company appears on the surface to fill most of the same roles as my company (Why-Q? Inc.) does, they appear to be very out of touch for a business whose function is to be just the opposite. 

In-N-Out burger made the Top 5 of this list.  Hm, that’s strange, as In-N-Out is a chain limited to certain parts of California.  It seems unfair to deem a study’s demographic Generation Y the cities polled are Los Angeles and San Francisco.  The fact that American Apparel, a brand synonymous with Los Angeles, made the list, seems to nod towards this notion as well.  *(I went back and it says participants from NY and Miami were polled as well but the ratio of the pool was nowhere to be found.)

On top of this, Outlaw’s mission statement repeatedly emphasizes that they find their participants on the street, while at the same time defending they study the top trendsetters— how do they know these people are top trendsetters if they’re meeting them mostly on the street?  This would imply they are judging these so-called “trendsetters” based on what they’re wearing or what location they find them in, which means they have a pre-determined idea of what is “trendy” so the study is a projection of the researchers rather than the researched (and, of course, then, people who are following trends rather than setting them.)