New report looks at the Brand Believability™ of presidential candidates
Will & Grail has released the findings of its Brand Believability™ study, looking at how potential voters perceive the major candidates and parties leading up to the November 8th election.
The survey uses the company’s proprietary Brand Believability methodology, designed to measure and understand the factors influencing public perception of a brand’s alignment with core purpose. For benchmarking purposes, purpose is defined as having a profound, positive impact on lives, communities and the world.
“Presidential candidates aren’t just people, they are brands,” says Mark O’Renick, Will & Grail CEO. “At the end of the day, voters are looking for candidates and parties that they believe in, that they believe will have a positive impact on people’s lives individually and collectively.” O’Renick hopes this will spark a dialogue about how we view candidates and parties and establish a benchmark to evaluate candidates in a different light.
Data for the report was gathered in an early October survey of potential voters. The final report includes both quantitative scoring and qualitative commentary to understand the context of people’s perceptions. Key findings from the report indicated:
- No material difference between men and women on the potential positive impact of a Donald Trump presidency.
- Hillary Clinton was the most polarizing figure in this survey, with more than half of her ratings on opposite ends of the scoring spectrum.
- Donald Trump recorded the majority of his scores on the low-to-mid range of the scale.
- There was a strong generational split among the candidates, with Millennials and Generation X supporting Clinton and Baby Boomers favoring Trump.
- Respondents who identified as being a registered Republican had a more favorable view of the potential positive impact of the party than of Trump.
“What the results of Brand Believability show us is quite simple: Voters don’t think any of these candidates will do much good for them, their neighbors or society as a whole,” O’Renick says. “We seem to have lost faith in the institutions of our government, and our survey shows the next president has a lot of work ahead to convince the American people that he or she has the best interests of our nation at heart.