–“Real brands” have made a real comeback, foretelling how consumers will view the retail category and, more importantly, how they’ll spend, is the key takeaway from the 10^th annual Brand Keys Fashion Brand Index.

 

This year, fashion brands were seen to be ‘more” or “much more” important to consumers, increasing that sentiment significantly by +14%, elevating the Total Audience figure that felt that way to a record high 28%. And, more brands are appearing in the top10 than at any time since the survey’s inception in 1995, according to Robert Passikoff, founder and president, Brand Keys Inc., the New York-based brand and customer loyalty research consultancy (www.brandkeys.com).

 

Five years ago fewer than 3% of US apparel buyers thought fashion brands and logos were more important in deciding what clothing to buy. But according to the 2010 Brand Keys Fashion Index, the brand-to-fashion consumer mindset has changed dramatically, with brands now more important to them when it comes time to deciding which brand they will buy.

 

“The critical word in that finding is ‘buy,’” noted Passikoff. “Last year’s findings predicted that value, not price, was the watchword in consumer behavior. And you can’t have the value conversation without the brand conversation. True brands provide meaningful differentiation in a world over-run by commodities – this being especially true in the fashion arena.”

 

The findings prove that brands can act as a surrogate for value. But to profit from this shift in consumer mindset you have to be a real brand, not merely a well-known product or a celebrity-endorsed offering that stands for nothing in consumers’ minds. Real fashion brands have reached their highest level of consequence since the 1960’s,” added Brand Keys’ Passikoff.

 

Top Ten Brands

 

For the Total Audience of 7,500 men and women, 21 to 65 years of age, who participated in the study, the top-10 fashion brands ranked on an unaided basis were:

 

1. Favorite Sports Team

2. Ralph Lauren

3. Armani

4. Nike

5. Polo

6. Brooks Brothers

7. Levi’s

8. Banana Republic

9. Tommy Hilfiger / J. Crew

10. Burberry / Chanel / Versace

 

Among the Men’s Top-10 designated brands were:

 

1. Favorite Sports Team

2. Nike

3. Ralph Lauren

4. Polo

5. Brooks Brothers

6. Armani

7. Levi’s

8. Tommy Hilfiger

9. J. Crew

10. Banana Republic

 

Women’s 2010 fashion brands were slightly more high-end, but included some mid-range brands:

 

1. Ralph Lauren

2. Favorite Sports Team

3. Armani

4. Chanel

5. Versace

6. Donna Karan

7. Burberry

8. Banana Republic

9. Dolce & Gabanna / Levi’s

10. J. Crew

 

This is the third consecutive year that fashion brand names have grown in import, and reverses a seven-year trend where fashion brand importance had been exceptionally low, or at best, flat. The change indicates that value – or the perception of value-via-brand – is of much greater import to consumers and to the success of fashion brands.

 

“Given the levels of commoditization we’ve witnessed in the past decade, it’s not surprising that consumers are looking to brands to make a difference. In the context of fashion brands and fashion logos, the value isn’t just what the consumers’ dollars buy –it is what the brand means and how it fits the consumers’ lives and self-perceptions. This is more especially true in a retail marketplace with an excess of similar products, congruous distribution, and bargain basement pricing,” said Passikoff.

 

Methodology

 

Since 1997, Brand Keys has annually conducted a national Customer Loyalty Engagement Index survey of leading brands, currently assessing 57 leading product and service categories. 

 

The survey is conducted among 35,500 men and women, 18 to 65 years of age, with respondents drawn from the nine U.S. Census regions. The majority of interviews are conducted via telephone; 20% of the interviews are conducted via central location intercept so as not to exclude “cell phone-only” consumers.

 

Twenty-one percent (21%) of the respondents, 7,500 respondents (50:50 Men/Women, aged 21 to 65 years of age) also respond to questions about the value or importance they place on the fashion brands and of the clothing brands they find important to them.

 

First, the respondents are asked to indicate the importance to them personally of fashion brands, compared to how important they were to them over the past few years. The respondent choices are:  Much more important, More important, About the same, Less important, or Much less important.

 

Then, on an unaided basis, respondents are asked which specific brands were more important to them.

 

This year’s bottom line? Real brand value and meaning will have more leverage than ever before. “There are a lot of clothing labels competing out there, but – just like the automotive and electronics retail categories – retailers are going to be seeing more culling of fashion brands by consumers. When the only difference is the label, consumers don’t need every retailer or designer offering up the same black tee shirt,” predicted Passikoff.