Welcome to the Stagwell Marketing Cloud x QuestBrand monthly brand report.
Every month, we take brand data from QuestBrand, a real-time brand management software tool, and highlight the brands you should have on your radar.
Let’s dive in:
While I’m not on TikTok, staying on top of what’s happening on that wild frontier is one of my favorite ways to pass the time. From WaterTok to family vloggers who have lost their moral compasses, I am obsessed with watching the platform from afar—usually through the lens of my favorite YouTubers.
A new trend recently caught my eye: TikTok “personal” shoppers.
There are TikTok users going to their local Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, and HomeGoods to set up shop…literally. They spend hours on livestream, roaming fluorescently-lit aisles teeming with decorative mugs, fuzzy pajama pants, and other surplus store delicacies. Their followers tune in and “claim” things they didn’t even know they wanted. Sheets decorated with reindeer. A Winnie the Pooh ramen bowl. A pair of $10 slippers that with a $15 “shopping fee” and shipping will become $35.
I am endlessly fascinated by this phenomenon.
But it turns out there is more of a precedent than I thought. Secondhand fashion retailer Poshmark leaned into buyers’ desires to shop via livestream in spring of last year, and it’s been commonplace to participate in live shopping in China for over a decade.
But how has the American market reacted to the launch of Posh Shows, Poshmark’s relatively new livestream shopping feature?
The short answer: They love it.
“The community reception has blown us away,” Tracy Sun, Poshmark co-founder and SVP of seller experience told Forbes. “I’m excited for what’s ahead as we make Poshmark the number one place to shop and sell live.”
Let’s see what the QuestBrand team found when they dug into Poshmark consumer data.
“Figure 1 tracks consumers’ purchase consideration from the start of 2023 through the end of October. From this data, we can see that young women (Millennials and Gen Z adults) were significantly more likely (+14.3) to consider purchasing from Poshmark at the end of October (61.0) than they had been at the beginning of January (46.7).
Poshmark’s increase in purchase consideration aligns with significant growth across several components of their sales conversion funnel (Figure 2). When we compare Poshmark’s sales conversion funnel among young female consumers from the final quarter of 2022 (October-December) to fall 2023 (August - October), we see that young women are significantly more likely to try (trial +9.5), use (usage +9.3), and recommend (+7.8) Poshmark to others in late-2023 than they had been at the end of 2022.”
Live shopping is an emerging marketing in the United States, but is clearly something young consumers are interested in. Whether it’s casually on TikTok or through platforms like Amazon or Poshmark, the convenience of shopping from home paired with the element of performance baked into a livestream is a burgeoning medium for American shopping.
Read the full Poshmark case study here.
I did a significant amount of research to try and write an interesting opening sentence about stocks, a.k.a. stonks, to replace this one.
MOASS, bulls, bears, to the moon, buy the dip, pump and dump. I quickly learned I was in over my head—my confidence tanking more quickly than Boeing stock—trying to speak the language of the wolves of Wall Street.
But go to pretty much any subreddit dedicated to the musings of armchair investors, and SoFi is on the brain. Not only is it capturing the attention of amateur investors, NASDAQ: SOFI recently received a tentative forward-looking comparison to Amazon Web Services from Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Devries.
So where is this hype coming from?
Likely a couple of places. First of all, their product was perfectly placed to help borrowers through their favorable loan refinancing options as student loans resumed last fall. Between inflation and interest rate hikes, borrowers may have been looking to lower their monthly payments.
And secondly, they’ve done an exceptionally good job building their brand over the last few years—especially with their target demographic: high earning young adults.
Scroll their TikTok and Instagram, and you’ll see a suite of recognizable faces talking money, from Selling Sunset’s Chrishelle Strauss to influencer Corporate Natalie or Queer Eye’s Karamo. Their investment in SoFi Stadium means their name is on the tip of Angelenos lips’ every time the biggest acts come to town, and they bring a really modern feel to banking.
All of that being said: What does the QuestBrand data say? Check it out below.
“According to QuestBrand data, SoFi’s brand equity steadily rose among US adults throughout 2023. However, brand equity gains were most significant among SoFi’s target customer – high earning, young adults, with the largest jump in brand equity during Q3 (see graph below).
“Young, high earners” are defined as Millennials and Gen Z adults with an income of $100,000+. Among this demographic, SoFi started July with a brand equity score of 37.7. By the end of the third quarter, brand equity had increased to 48.0 (+9.3).”
The numbers don’t lie, and SoFi is seeing tremendous quarterly membership growth to back up their brand equity boost. If this upward trajectory continues, we can expect exciting things from the fintech brand in 2024.
Read the full SoFi case study here.
Unless you’re living under a rock, you are well aware that Taylor Swift is dating Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce.
You couldn’t avoid this news even if you wanted to (which, honestly, I wish I could).
The Taylor Swift effect is undeniable: She can inspire through the roof sales, boost the American economy, and…bring a whole new fanbase to football?
Since Swift’s debut appearance at a Chiefs’ game on September 24th, Swifties have had to solicit brothers, dads, and boyfriends for the account information to their ESPN apps. They’re perfecting their buffalo dip and blocking off Sundays for football to see if they can get a glimpse of Swift’s reactions to a great block or brutal tackle for Kelce.
They’re buying Travis Kelce jerseys (sales catapulted 400% within the first few days of Swift’s confirmed allegiance) and watching the games (average viewership for the NFL was up 7% year-over-year).
If Saturdays are for the boys, Sundays are now for the girls.
Swift’s impact on the Chiefs is so significant that Apex Marketing Group says that she has generated $331.5 million in equivalent brand value for the team. It certainly feels like the Swifties have shown up.
But what does QuestBrand data show? Are women really more interested in the NFL than they used to be? And can that be attributed to Swift’s latest romance? Here’s what we found:
“Using data from QuestBrand by The Harris Poll, we explored how young women’s interest in the NFL increased after Swift showed interest in Kelce. QuestBrand tracks consumers’ progression through the sales conversion funnel – awareness, familiarity, trial, usage, and recommend.
NFL “usage” signals that an individual is watching or supporting the NFL. In the graph above, we see young women’s (Millennial and Gen Z adults) usage of the NFL jump after September 2023. At the end of December 2023, NFL usage among young women reached 46.6. This is up from 37.0 a year earlier (December 31, 2022).”
The Taylor Swift effect is real and very much at play for the Kansas City Chiefs. Swift’s cultural capital is widely unmatched, and her ability to boost a brand, product—or even the economy—is a true testament to the power of her influence.
