Target's Falling Buzz Score [1]
Submitted by Anne Landman [2] on
The Internet-based market research agency YouGov [3] compiles a weekly report called the Brandweek BrandIndex, that measures "buzz," or consumer perceptions of the most talked-about brands. A big loser in the agency's September 3, 2010 report is Target [4], which drew fire after the retailer donated $150,000 to the Republican [5]-leaning political action group [6], Minnesota Forward [7]. After receiving the donation, MN Forward ran TV ads supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who openly opposes [8] equal rights for gays and lesbians. News about Target's support of Emmer led to a movement to boycott Target [9]. While Target's buzz score rallied modestly August 12-24, it dropped again after a rash of major newspaper op-eds, blog posts and publicity surrounding television ads promoting the boycott [10] produced by MoveOn.org. YouGov interviews 5,000 people every weekday from a representative sample of the U.S. population, and respondents are drawn from an online panel of 1.5 million individuals.