Despite a rocky year for the company, Meta (META) is the fastest growing brand among all adults in the United States, according to a new report from Morning Consult.
Meta, the parent company of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, is particularly popular with Gen Xers and Baby Boomers and has seen its purchase consideration (i.e. the share of consumers who said they consider to buy from the brand) increase by 6.5% compared to January to October 2022.
“What’s interesting about Meta is that it’s really fighting against two very strong things – an association with Facebook, which doesn’t have a very warm public opinion, and a CEO who is very public, which, according to our research, is not going well for a brand,” Joanna Piacenza, head of industrial intelligence at Morning Consult, told Yahoo Finance Live (video above).
Her rise in popularity, Piacenza said, is indicative of her success in renaming herself, as well as “increased awareness and interest” in the metaverse. More and more companies have shown interest in investing in the virtual reality space.
“You can’t think of the Metaverse without talking about Meta,” she said.
Another company seeing renewed interest among consumers is American footwear company Crocs (CROX), which took second place on the list.
The company posted record revenue in 2022, topping $985 million in its latest quarterly results. In less than a year, Crocs’ sales have increased by more than 50%.
“They’ve had a very successful year by not alienating their target audience, who are equally concerned with comfort and affordability, and by also following trends,” Piacenza said. “Staying on trend with their different accessories, that balance really benefits Crocs.”
The inflationary effect
Inflation appears to have had an impact on Morning Consult’s overall findings, as many consumers cut back on discretionary spending.
For example, subscription-based companies like Paramount+ (PARA), HBO Max (WBD), and Peacock (CMCSA) were among the fastest growing brands in 2021, but fell short this time around.
“Average purchase considerations for 2022 have declined this year,” Piacenza said. “It’s different from the last three years, [and] that includes the really traumatic COVID years that had better buy consideration among brands. What that means for consumers is that they don’t buy more of their favorite brands, and I think what’s really important for new and emerging brands, they don’t necessarily try new brands on the market.”
Therefore, the new brands in the Morning Consult list include several budget alternatives.
Breeze Airways, a Utah-based low-cost airline, and Roku (ROKU) – a digital streamer that uses a low-cost, ad-based subscription model – were among the 10 fastest growing brands for Generation Zers. Travel and hotel brands were also on the Gen Z list.
“Gen Z has really missed out on a lot of the travel excursions that a lot of us experience as adults,” Piacenza said. “That’s because a lot of them were entering adulthood and getting more discretionary funds as COVID hit. So they’re seeing a lot of these hotel, travel, and airline brands for the first time this year.”
However, things are less exciting for millennials in terms of financial well-being, which is less than stellar, she noted. They have very low average purchase considerations compared to other generations.
“This is the generation that struggles to buy a house,” Piacenza said. “It’s a generation that has young children. Childcare costs add up. It’s not a generation that goes looking for new brands, spending a lot of money – something that these consumer-facing brands need to keep in mind.”
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Tanya is a data reporter at Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @tanyakaushal00.
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