Commentary

Survey: Consumers Care More About Product Quality Than Social Activism From Brands

New York-based marketing and communications agency The Sway Effect has launched a new monthly “pulse” survey to keep tabs on consumer sentiment about brands.

The Sway Effect Index will be an ongoing consumer sentiment survey that will take a pulse of who and what is “holding sway” (so to speak) at any given moment in time as well as identify brand winners and losers based on current developments.

In the just-released first survey, 69% of respondents claim activist brands do not influence their purchasing decisions. Instead, respondents indicated that how companies treat employees (58.6%) and the quality of products or services [57.9%] “swayed” their opinion of brands.

Top brands holding sway at the moment include Pfizer, Amazon, Zoom, Tik Tok, and Microsoft.

Brands that have lost luster include Fox News, Facebook, CNN, Royal Caribbean, and Twitter.

Asked about recent developments that surprised them the most, respondents cited the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol (49.6%) and the COVID-19 vaccination progress (41.9%).

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“As our survey has identified, respondents are craving a return to simpler times with less stress and less division,” said Jennifer Risi, founder and president of The Sway Effect. “Brands need to consider this shift as they create their campaigns and programs for the year ahead.”

Survey results are based on a nationally representative sample of 1,500 respondents recruited from Facebook and Instagram via the survey platform Stickybeak. Fieldwork was conducted between March 29 and April 4.

 

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