These Brands Had the Fastest Growth in Consumer Buying Intent in 2020

January 13, 2021

MorningConsult Fastest Growing Brands Consideration Jan2021With a global pandemic changing the way consumers shopped, worked and communicated throughout the majority of 2020, it’s no surprise that the year’s Fastest Growing Brands [download page], as determined by Morning Consult, included brands specializing in online communication, entertainment and food delivery.

Per the report, “growth was determined by taking the share of consumers who said they were considering purchasing from the brand from Oct. 16 – Nov. 16, 2020 minus the share who said the same in Jan. 1 – 31, 2020. The number of surveys per brand varies, with an average of 11,470 surveys per brand.”

As lockdown measures sent consumers home to work at the start of the pandemic, the need to communicate in a different way spurred the growth of Zoom. As the fastest-growing brand of the year, Zoom’s purchase intent grew by 15.1 percentage points (with this likely referring to usage as opposed to actual purchases). Unlike the other brands tracked, Morning Consult began tracking this measure for Zoom in mid-March 2020, when some 11% share of consumers said they would “purchase” the technology over the course of the year. By November the share had increased to 26%.

Another online communications software, Microsoft Teams, also made the list in the #8 position. Microsoft’s offering saw intent grow 4.8 points throughout 2020 from 18% to 23%.

Increased TV viewing and streaming during the pandemic has led to more opportunities for newer streaming services. Proof of this can be seen with the 11.5 point growth of NBC’s streaming service Peacock (#2) and the 6.1 point growth of HBO Max (#6), both of which started streaming in early 2020.

Social distancing also ramped up consumers’ use of services such as online grocery shopping and delivery as well as restaurant delivery, with Instacart (6.9 point growth) and DoorDash (6.1 point growth) landing in the #4 and #5 position.

Other brands in the top 10 include:

  • TikTok: #3 with 6.9 point growth;
  • WhatsApp: #7 with 5.1 points growth;
  • T-Mobile: #9 with 4.8 points growth; and
  • Pfizer: #10 with 4.8 points growth.

Fastest-Growing Brands By Generation

Zoom tops the list of fastest-growing brands across generations, with the biggest change in growth coming from Gen X (+20.3 points) and Millennials (+20 points).

The difference in generations comes with the brands in the #2 spot. Falling in line with other user data showing TikTok’s adult users in the US tend to be young, TikTok was the second-fastest-growing brand among adult Gen Z (ages 18-23) and Millennials, while Peacock was #2 in purchase intent growth for Gen Z and Boomers.

The third-fastest growing brands varied among the generations with HBO Max taking the #3 spot for both Gen Z adults and Gen X. Peacock was #3 in purchase intent growth with Millennials, while Pfizer held that spot with Boomers.

Brand Awareness Growth

When it comes to growth in familiarity with brands, Zoom experienced the biggest leap (+33.6 percentage points) during the time period analyzed. Familiarity also grew considerably with Peacock, with 68% of consumers aware of the brand in November compared to 37% in January.

Rounding out the top 5 brands that gained the most awareness were Instacart (+19.2 points), TikTok (+16.9 points) and Bud Light Seltzer (+14.2 points).

To see the full list of the fastest-growing brands, the report can be found here.

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