Young people vote for the coolest brands

16th June 2009 – MTV Networks presented for the fourth year in a row the awards for the coolest brands, chosen by young people.
Last April InSites Consulting (in collaboration with MTV Networks) polled the views of 1.500 young Belgians between the ages of 13 and 29. The findings from this survey not only identified the coolest brands but it was also able to demonstrate a direct link between the coolest factor of a brand, on the one hand, and the brand loyalty of young people towards this brand, on the other. Over four years ago MTV Networks and InSites Consulting launched their investigation into the coolness of brands. This annual presentation of the Cool Brands Awards was accompagnied by a more in-depth investigation into coolness. The idea was to find an answer to the question of what young people exactly mean by cool. It was found that the coolness of a brand is determined by three different parameters: originality, attractiveness and popularity. In 2008 the ‘Cool Sneaking Formula‘ was launched or how to represent coolness in figures. Cool = 22% originality + 23% popularity + 55% attractiveness. This not only demonstrates that brands that want to be cool score pretty high on all three parameters, but also that in certain sectors some parameters seem to weigh heavier.
Cool today, gone tomorrow?
This year, we went a step further by looking for the link between cool brands and the brand loyalty of young people towards a particular brand. Research has shown that, as far as young people are concerned, there is not only a strong link between coolness and brand loyalty in the short term but also in the long term. In the short term, no less than 73% of all brand loyalty is about the coolness of the brand. In the long term, the coolness of a brand also appears to have an influence on its market share. Young people today buy twice as many cool brands than uncool brands, while the future purchase intention of these brands is no less than three times as high. This is definitely an incentive for all youth marketers to communicate the coolness of their brand to young people as best as they can. Anyone who manages to convince young people of the coolness of their brand will be guaranteed of a long-term relationship of the target group with their brand. Important to remember: faking the coolness is the last thing you should do and will immediately be punished by the people you are targetting.
Who’s cool, who’s not?

  • Overall Coolest Brand: Coca-Cola
  • Coolest Mobile Phone Brand: iPhone
  • Coolest Soft Drinks Brand: Coca-Cola
  • Coolest Mint Brand: Mentos
  • Coolest Denim Brand: Replay
  • Coolest Bank: Axion (Dexia)
  • Coolest Game Console Brand: Wii
  • Coolest Ready Made Meals Brand: Dr. Oetker
  • Coolest Woman Beauty Care Brand: Nivea
  • Coolest Men Beauty Care Brand: Axe

For more information, contact Joeri Van den Bergh ([email protected])

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