• by Wayne Friedman , December 7, 2020

President Donald Trump's brand -- as it relates to added advertising value -- has dropped among some major Trump-centric category brands, according to Brand Keys.

But the advertising engagement research company says one high-profile category has climbed dramatically: TV and entertainment.

Brand Keys defines a person as a brand -- which it did for Trump in 1991 -- in reference to that person’s “particular value sets, who were able to successfully and profitably transfer those values to products and services.”

Between January 2020 and October 2020, Brands Key says the TV/entertainment category witnessed an increase to 49% from 45% in terms of “human brand-efficacy.”

In three other key categories -- golf/country clubs, real estate and hotels -- Trump's brand effectiveness declined to 30%, 29%, and 34%, respectively. Back in January, golf/country clubs were at 32%; real estate, 30%; and hotels, 37%.

Looking at brand lift by political affiliation, Republican respondents boosted the Trump brand around the TV/entertainment category by 5 percentage points, to 49%. Democrats and Independent respondents showed a decline -- down 5 points to 30% and 3 points lower to 32%, respectively.

While TV and entertainment were up among Republican respondents, they lowered Trump's brand association when it came to golf/country clubs -- down 5 points to 41% -- with real estate falling 6 points to 31%, and hotels 7 points lower to 37%.

The national Brand Keys survey was conducted October 19-27, 2020, and included 1,812 self-identified Republicans, Democrats, and Independents drawn from the nine U.S. Census regions.