Brand competition is intense and shelves are crowded. With thousands of new products being added each year, increased competition from private label, and shopping fragmentation due to the rise of e-commerce and the share economy, building brand trust is a critical task for marketers to break through the clutter. Trust is a foundational element of building and maintaining brand health and achieving strong in-market performance.

But just as shopping priorities differ among consumers, so does their trust in brands. In the U.S., the consumer landscape is changing, with women playing a larger role in the economy. According to a Nielsen survey, women are the sole breadwinners in 40% of U.S. households with children, controlling 4.3 trillion (73%) of U.S. spending. So when it comes to brand trust and the gender divide, what brands are seen as trustworthy in the eyes of men and which in the eyes of women?

Nielsen recently released a consumer packaged goods (CPG) focused wave of the 27th annual Harris Poll EquiTrend® study showcasing the top 10 most-trusted CPG brands among women and men. The brands that have earned consumers’ trust are well-established brands, with a long history of consistently delivering on their brand promise.

When it comes to trusted brands for women, products that topped the list are related to convenience or health in their households. From Ziploc food storage bags to Dawn dish soap, many of the products on this list help make women’s lives easier in some way. For women, trusted brands are tried and true and have stood the test of time. The products women trust the most are brands that are key to everyday life; they are brands women trust to get the job done right, allowing them to focus on more important aspects of their busy lifestyles.

For men, brand trust is a bit more diversified. With a variety of health, tech (batteries) and a few indulgent items (including Glenlivet and Ghirardelli), there is a mixture of trusted practicality and reliable pleasure. Globally, sales of both healthy and indulgent categories grew over a two-year period, but growth in healthy categories outpaced indulgent categories (+5% and +2%, respectively).

BAND-AID brand adhesive bandages appears towards the top of both gender lists as a trusted brand. In a world full of cuts, scrapes, and blisters both genders find it hard to imagine life without reliable adhesive bandages. While this category includes many private label products, BAND-AID has been able to effectively compete with low-cost alternatives. Perceptions about private label are overwhelmingly favorable—almost three-quarters of global respondents (71%) say private-label quality has improved over time. Still, in many categories, strong, healthy, high equity brands are able to command a price premium. We tend to see private-label growth come at the expense of small- and mid-sized brands, while category leaders remain relatively safe.

Measuring brand health is critical to sustaining and growing brands. As brand proliferation continues to increase with new items giving consumers greater product choices, manufacturers must understand the value, benefits and drivers of brand equity. Brand trust is one of many important factors that influence equity, sales and market share. Manufacturers can leverage brand trust to boost sales of new products: nearly 6-in-10 global respondents (59%) prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them.What brands do male and female consumers trust the most?

Brand competition is intense and shelves are crowded. With thousands of new products being added each year, increased competition from private label, and shopping fragmentation due to the rise of e-commerce and the share economy, building brand trust is a critical task for marketers to break through the clutter. Trust is a foundational element of building and maintaining brand health and achieving strong in-market performance.

But just as shopping priorities differ among consumers, so does their trust in brands. In the U.S., the consumer landscape is changing, with women playing a larger role in the economy. According to a Nielsen survey, women are the sole breadwinners in 40% of U.S. households with children, controlling 4.3 trillion (73%) of U.S. spending. So when it comes to brand trust and the gender divide, what brands are seen as trustworthy in the eyes of men and which in the eyes of women?

Nielsen recently released a consumer packaged goods (CPG) focused wave of the 27th annual Harris Poll EquiTrend® study showcasing the top 10 most-trusted CPG brands among women and men. The brands that have earned consumers’ trust are well-established brands, with a long history of consistently delivering on their brand promise.

When it comes to trusted brands for women, products that topped the list are related to convenience or health in their households. From Ziploc food storage bags to Dawn dish soap, many of the products on this list help make women’s lives easier in some way. For women, trusted brands are tried and true and have stood the test of time. The products women trust the most are brands that are key to everyday life; they are brands women trust to get the job done right, allowing them to focus on more important aspects of their busy lifestyles.

For men, brand trust is a bit more diversified. With a variety of health, tech (batteries) and a few indulgent items (including Glenlivet and Ghirardelli), there is a mixture of trusted practicality and reliable pleasure. Globally, sales of both healthy and indulgent categories grew over a two-year period, but growth in healthy categories outpaced indulgent categories (+5% and +2%, respectively).

BAND-AID brand adhesive bandages appears towards the top of both gender lists as a trusted brand. In a world full of cuts, scrapes, and blisters both genders find it hard to imagine life without reliable adhesive bandages. While this category includes many private label products, BAND-AID has been able to effectively compete with low-cost alternatives. Perceptions about private label are overwhelmingly favorable—almost three-quarters of global respondents (71%) say private-label quality has improved over time. Still, in many categories, strong, healthy, high equity brands are able to command a price premium. We tend to see private-label growth come at the expense of small- and mid-sized brands, while category leaders remain relatively safe.

Measuring brand health is critical to sustaining and growing brands. As brand proliferation continues to increase with new items giving consumers greater product choices, manufacturers must understand the value, benefits and drivers of brand equity. Brand trust is one of many important factors that influence equity, sales and market share. Manufacturers can leverage brand trust to boost sales of new products: nearly 6-in-10 global respondents (59%) prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them.

Google has unveiled a new colourful logo that changes depending on whether a consumer is using desktop, voice or mobile search.

The change had made the logo simpler with a sans-serif custom font on desktop search. The aesthetic is noticeably childlike, possibly in reference to Google's new parent company, Alphabet. The holding page for Alphabet features alphabet blocks.

As well as replacing the main search engine logo, Google has scrapped the blue, lower case 'g' for mobile, and replaced it with a more colourful version. There's also a matching micro icon for voice queries.

Here is what Google had to say on the design shift:

Google has changed a lot over the past 17 years—from the range of our products to the evolution of their look and feel. And today we’re changing things up once again:

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So why are we doing this now? Once upon a time, Google was one destination that you reached from one device: a desktop PC. These days, people interact with Google products across many different platforms, apps and devices—sometimes all in a single day. You expect Google to help you whenever and wherever you need it, whether it’s on your mobile phone, TV, watch, the dashboard in your car, and yes, even a desktop!

Today we’re introducing a new logo and identity family that reflects this reality and shows you when the Google magic is working for you, even on the tiniest screens. As you’ll see, we’ve taken the Google logo and branding, which were originally built for a single desktop browser page, and updated them for a world of seamless computing across an endless number of devices and different kinds of inputs (such as tap, type and talk).

It doesn’t simply tell you that you’re using Google, but also shows you how Google is working for you. For example, new elements like a colorful Google mic help you identify and interact with Google whether you’re talking, tapping or typing. Meanwhile, we’re bidding adieu to the little blue “g” icon and replacing it with a four-color “G” that matches the logo.

This isn’t the first time we’ve changed our look and it probably won’t be the last, but we think today’s update is a great reflection of all the ways Google works for you across Search, Maps, Gmail, Chrome and many others. We think we’ve taken the best of Google (simple, uncluttered, colorful, friendly), and recast it not just for the Google of today, but for the Google of the future.

According to a post by Google's VP for product management, Tamar Yahoshua, and director of user experience, Bobby Nath, the idea is to better signal "how Google is working for you" across difference screens and experiences.

The pair wrote: "We think we’ve taken the best of Google (simple, uncluttered, colorful, friendly), and recast it not just for the Google of today, but for the Google of the future."

IMRB International, a leading market research firm today announced the appointment of K Ramkrishnan (Ramki) as General Manager of IMRB Kantar Worldpanel business.

Ramki has over 20 years of experience in Consumer marketing, Product/ Brand management, Sales and Strategy development. He joins IMRB from Future Lifestyle Fashions Limited where he was President - Marketing. In the past, he has headed the Marketing function at Café Coffee Day, Lenovo, TTK Services and TVS Motors.

Commenting on the appointment Hemant Mehta, SVP, Media & Retail, IMRB International said, With over 20 years of experience in Consumer marketing, Product/ Brand management, Sales and Strategy development, Ramki brings to the organisation valuable expertise in conceptualizing long term strategies, managing innovation and brand development based on consumer insights. As the portfolio of services from IMRB | Kantar Worldpanel expands, I am sure that Ramki’s experience will be a tremendous asset to us and our clients.

Talking about the move, K Ramkrishnan said: I am delighted to be part of IMRB Kantar World Panel. I am very excited to drive the Panel service at a time when a lot of change is being seen in the way consumers consume – the changing consumption patterns, the growth of e-commerce, changing media landscape and the rapid inroads made by technology in the consumers lives.  I hope to be able to see and present insights in a way that would be more focused on offering solutions to the marketers, having been one myself all these years. I guess being on this side of the table will help me appreciate better the needs of the marketers and help them craft appropriate strategies for addressing their business issues

Ramki holds B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering-AC Techfrom Anna University, Chennai. He has received his MBA from Bharatidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli.

E-commerce has been around for many years now, however being PC-bound meant that it was only accessible to a small section of society. In the past three years all that changed with the explosive growth of smartphones. Today there are far more mobile-based internet users than PC based internet users.

E-commerce players know this and from the middle of 2014 have been promoting and offering discounts on purchases made through their mobile apps. In order to get users hooked to the app, players are shutting their sites and transitioning users solely to their apps instead. Myntra was the first to execute this in May ‘15, and Flipkart has announced plans to follow suit in September 2015.

If 2014 was the year when E-commerce finally came into its own in India, 2015 promises to be the year of the mobile shopping app. The Indian shopper is increasingly embracing shopping on the go, spurred by widespread E-commerce campaigns and easy access to smartphones that have seen an explosive growth in penetration. Sale periods are in sync with festivals and public holidays, and along with aggressive app launches and promotions, they have reinforced the growing trend.

The number of smartphone users who use shopping apps has jumped to 54% in May 15, from just 21% a year back. In comparison, the growth in popularity of shopping websites has been moderate, increasing from 28% to reach 45%.

Consumer Trends & Insights

In the early days of online commerce, a widespread belief was that women will adopt and drive mobile shopping. However, up until a few months ago, it was actually men who were driving the adoption and growth in mobile shopping. Data from real-time smartphone usage tracking provides insights on consumption patterns of smartphone users and reveals some unexpected facts about the reach of mobile shopping in India.This could be attributed to two key factors: the male appetite for technology and the fact that men are often the ones who make the payment.

The majority of E-commerce products viewed and bought are electronics items, a segment that young men drive. The other possibility is that even when women make a purchase decision, they ask men to compare costs or complete a transaction.

In the past 2 to 3 months however, we see that women have caught up and today they spend 16 mins a month more than men on mobile shopping apps.

ENGAGEMENT ON E-COMMERCE APPS

Our data shows that users in non-metros are slightly more engaged on shopping apps than users in metros. The former has limited shopping alternatives, especially in the electronics and apparel category, although the latter has a higher spending power. The cash-on-delivery option is also a driver of small town adoption for shopper apps.

While time spent is similar across India, it’s not similar across all handset price bands. Specifically, users with more expensive handsets, those exceeding INR 15,000, spend 1.6x the time on shopping apps compared to those with cheaper phones. Higher time spends can be loosely correlated to higher spending power in mobile shopping.

higher engagement of e-commerce apps in non-metros

Source: Nielsen

Making a brand message stick is one of the biggest hurdles for brands in the online space, and one wrong move can ruin the strategy. One expert offers his top 3 tips to create sticky brand messaging.

First, speak to people rather than marketers.

"Marketers have their own lexicons of terms and this "marketing-speak" is all too often spread across About Us and production description pages. However, this jargony language does not resonate with consumers, it just confuses them," said Malcolm Stewart, CEO, YouEye. "Effective messaging avoids overly artistics or vague descriptions of products and brands. It focuses on outlining concrete information in plain English that everyone can understand."

Second, create an emotional connection.

"Even when messaging, such as email copy, is well written and comprehensible, it will only be effective if it has an emotional impact. Certain word choices can have a negative emotional impact on readers and increase anxiety," said Stewart. "Take the example of auction marketplaces, which have to send people a notification when they are outbid. Instead of framing the losing big as opportunities slipping away, you can phrase the notification to have a positive, winning spin. Remind them how close they are to winning."

Third, target your positioning statements.

"Not all customers are the same, which may seem obvious, but far too many marketing messages reflect a one-size-fits-all approach that will prevent you from capturing certain segments of the market. Make sure that the way your offerings are communicated adapts to the customers you are reaching out to. If you are eyeing high-end customers, then do not lean on value propositions about minimal commitment and cost. Instead, create messaging about excellent technology and coverage quality," said Stewart.