What Types of Brand Messaging Appeal to Americans?

January 4, 2023

Most Americans are feeling very (26%) or somewhat (38%) positive at the moment, reveals Attest in recent survey results, but that doesn’t mean that they’re without a range of worries as we begin 2023.

Presented with a list and asked what they were most worried about heading into 2023 (the survey was carried out in November 2022), a leading 24.2% share of respondents pointed to struggles paying for food. This comes amid an environment in which a strong majority of Americans believe their food shopping costs will increase in the next few months.

Marketers have been adjusting their strategies to confront consumers’ concerns with inflation. But what do people want in terms of brand messaging?

Among the choices offered, respondents were most likely to say that humorous brand messaging appeals to them at the moment, with 51% placing this type of creative among their top 3 types. However, this is down from 57% who said the same in a year-earlier survey. In fact, research has found that humorous ads are on the decline: among ads researched by Kantar, only one-third incorporated some form of humor.

The next-most appealing type of brand messaging is motivational, among the top-3 for almost half (48%) of respondents. This hasn’t changed from last year, when it was also second and cited by almost half.

Perhaps as a reflection of the many issues that Americans have had to confront over the past year, the biggest increase in appeal has been for reassuring ads that make people feel safe and good about themselves. This was the third-most cited type of brand messaging, by 37% of respondents. Although close to the same proportion of respondents cited this last year (34%), it was the further down the list of appealing types of creative.

In sum, over the past year, it seems that the appeal of humorous brand messaging has faded slightly, while people have become a bit more likely to want brand messaging that reassures them.

Other Survey Highlights:

  • About 1 in 6 (17.2% share) of respondents is happy to receive email marketing from brands they’re interested in on a daily basis, while an additional quarter (25.5%) are happy to receive emails once a week. Separately, a survey from Brand Keys reveals that Amazon and Groupon are the brands that top the “Too Many Emails” list.
  • Almost one-third (31.9%) of respondents said their purchases (excluding regular food shopping) are evenly split between online and in-store, with an almost-equal share saying their purchases are mostly online (25.7%) versus mostly in-store (24.1%).
  • Respondents are more than twice as likely to say they’ll shop less (22.6%) than more (10.2%) at fast fashion clothing brands such as Forever 21 and Zara this year.
  • A slim majority (54%) are spending money very (18.8%) or fairly (35.1%) cautiously.

About the Data: The results are based on a survey that concluded 11/7/22 of 2,000 nationally representative working-age consumers based in the US.

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