Despite a recent lackluster earnings call, there’s a bright spot on the horizon for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Forrester’s latest TRUE brand compass research shows a reservoir of consumer goodwill for the struggling brand. 

In August 2013, Forrester conducted Consumer Technographics® research with 4,551 US online adults to uncover the drivers of a successful 21st-century media brand. This research is part of Forrester’s TRUE brand compass framework, designed to identify which brands are winning the battle for consumer mindshare and to help marketers build a brand that is trusted, remarkable, unmistakable, and essential (TRUE). This framework has two core components: 1) An overall TRUE brand compass ranking gives a snapshot of a brand’s resonance — the emotional connection a customer has with a brand, and 2) the TRUE brand compass scorecard reveals a brand’s progress along each of the four TRUE dimensions.  

The results showed a tale of two digital media eras and the importance of brand building in the digital world:

  • 1990s digital media brands reap the rewards of brand building investment. Established digital media brands from the late 1990s recognized the importance of building their brands with consumers. Yahoo was a TV ad mainstay for many years — “Do you Yahoo!” anyone? This early investment continues to pay off as, despite corporate turmoil, the Yahoo brand retains a reservoir of brand resonance with consumers. And the mighty Google, which was the only media brand surveyed to achieve trailblazer status, continues to invest in TV brand building ads.  
  • Social media mainstays must build brand resonance. Despite widespread adoption, social media brands Facebook and Twitter have yet to build strong brand resonance with consumers. They rely on the direct user experience to build a relationship. But these social mainstays must go beyond the experience to define their brands to their consumers.

To learn more about how these and other media brands fared in the media TRUE brand ranking — including TV brands like ESPN and HGTV — check out my report “Established Media Brands Fend Off Social Newcomers To Top TRUE Brand Rankings.”