WhatsApp is the most influential brand | Free market…

WhatsApp is the most influential brand for the Argentines. According to the study Most Influential Brands (MIB, most influential brands) conducted by the consulting firm Ipsos, the courier service has moved Google from the top of the ranking of the most influential national and international brands in Argentina. MercadoLibre, owned by businessman Marcos Galperín, was the best-placed local company.

The French consultant conducts this study every year and measures one hundred brands that change each year. "This is the first year we are measuring WhatsApp," said Brenda Lynch of Ipsos and, he added, only the measured courier company in Argentina was measured. The consultant's report was developed from an online survey that was answered by a thousand people from across the country over the age of 18 and from all socio-economic levels.

Respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire and badociate attributes with the marks. Among these attributes, there was, among other things, whether this brand "changed my way of buying", "changed what I do everyday", "had an impact on the way people interact" or if "this is part of everyday language", as happens with googlear or whatsapear verbs.

"The influence is hard to build, but very easy to lose," they admitted from the consulting firm. To establish the MIB ranking, Ipsos has identified 5 dimensions that allow it to explain the influence of brands: connectivity (what is the presence of this brand in the online life of consumers), the avant-garde, reliability , commitment to the community society and / or environment) and presence (the amount of advertising and if it is easy to find).

"The biggest weight today is connectivity, because of the importance of online life today," Lynch explained. He also noted that in recent years you can see how digital world brands, such as Google and Facebook, have replaced traditional brands badociated with products, such as Coca-Cola. The other heavier dimensions are the avant-garde and the reliability.

In the case of WhatsApp, the most advantageous measure is that of avant-garde. According to the Ipsos study, 78% of respondents say that most of their friends and family use this messaging service. They also stated that the brand had introduced them "something I did not know I needed" and that "it changed the appearance of the consumer forever". "We were surprised to find that initially, users did not see WhatsApp as a brand despite their mbad use," Lynch said.

WhatsApp has 1.5 billion users worldwide and is used by 76% of Argentines with connectivity. From Ipsos, they are wondering what role the mail will play in the upcoming elections, since it was an essential tool of Jair Bolsonaro's presidential campaign. "User trust in the app is very important," they said, noting that WhatsApp did not run any explicit advertising, unlike Facebook and YouTube, used for the 2015 campaign.

The only place in the top 10 is Mercado Libre, which already operates in 19 countries and records 9 purchases per second. Respondents consider that it is a reliable brand, "that has a great future" and that "did not know what they needed".

Other national brands are added to the 20 MIB ranking. In position number 12, Easy Payment, in particular, explains Ipsos, for its presence in different parts of the country. Then there is SanCor, which moved from 55th position in 2018 to 13. Despite the economic situation in which the dairy enterprise is located, the respondents consider it a reliable brand, which maintains relations with the community and which "represents the Argentinean spirit".

YPF is in 20th place, with 13 places improved compared to last year. "Again, it seems like" represents the Argentinean spirit. "Trust and commitment to the community are the dimensions that most appeal to domestic companies," they said in the consulting firm. .