As industries grow and mature, innovation is inevitable. For those industries that are slow to innovate, disruption is the name of the game. E-Score® Brand, with 10 years of brand tracking data, helped us identify which brands are interrupting industries. Two key industries currently facing disruption are television and finance. Television is seeing a major disruption as many viewers are electing to cut the cord; opting for alternative viewing methods.  While TV is attempting to embrace their disruption, the financial industry has been slow to grasp innovation. We used E-Score Brand to look deeper into these industries and see which brands are likely to rise to the top.

Who Are the Next TV Disruptors?

Much like the boom in cable channels a decade ago, the onslaught of new streaming services and their subsequent original programming is changing the face of TV. SVOD providers like Netflix and Hulu have become the new premium content providers of choice for many viewers. But beyond the leaders, there has been an explosion of new SVOD services. To sort out the likely winners among this crop of new entrants, we looked back at the early stages of the cable industry and used over 10 years of tracking data from E-Score Brand to uncover what factors turned trailblazing cable networks into behemoths in today’s television landscape.

Common Traits of Winning Brands

We looked back in E-Score Brand and conducted an analysis of cable leaders from 2006 to see what were the characteristics of the brands that are now the industry leaders. A few key attributes consistently stood out. Cable genre originators like BBC America, National Geographic, and Animal Planet shared a few common attributes including: Distinctive, Entertaining, High-Quality, Influential, and a Leader.

Next, we looked at SVOD groundbreakers Netflix and Hulu, and discovered these platforms scored high among their target audience, Millennials, for these same attributes. These new-wave “channels” are the original cable disruptors and have also been extremely fruitful; possessing similar attributes to previously successful niche cable channels.  We then applied the same logic to some of the current upstart SVOD services.

Aside from the big three SVOD providers, the previously mentioned Netflix and Hulu with the addition of Amazon Prime, three new services appear primed to follow in the footsteps of previous “channels.” HBO Now, Showtime Anytime, and Twitch encompass the traits of successful media services. With all three scoring high for the same attributes as BBC America, National Geographic, Netflix and Hulu, we expect these new “channels” to follow a similarly disruptive path as their predecessors.  As we’ve seen before, the right combination of attributes can equal successful disruption of TV.

Digital Banking Brands

New Entrants Breaking the Bank

Millennials are becoming disenchanted with traditional financial institutions. Said one Millennial we surveyed, of one of the four major banks, “Anyone I’ve ever known to have an account through this bank has soon after regretted it.” Another describes their experience with another traditional financial institution as a “necessary evil.” As such, companies have been able to disrupt the finance industry by targeting this group with alternative brands and products.

Millennials, having come of age alongside these new models, have readily adopted “new-age” alternative financial brands. These brands are, in most cases, completely digital, stand-alone companies or innovations of existing brands. Half of the top 10 most appealing financial brands are non-traditional brands.

Brands like Venmo, the payment app, are loved by users. Said one user, “I wish everybody used something like this. I’d never have to carry cash or write a check again.” Although it comes in behind PayPal for Appeal, Venmo is viewed by Millennials as nearly twice as Innovative and just as much A Leader as PayPal. Sentiments like these are helping fuel this brand’s disruption.

Although still largely in favor of traditional financial brands, Generation X is becoming more accepting of new financial brands and products as well. Interestingly PayPal is the number one brand among this demographic. In fact, the brand is more Appealing to Generation X than Millennials, and is more than twice as Appealing as the next brand among the demographic. As these “new-wave” financial platforms become more prevalent, expect Generation X to become increasingly involved in, and accepting of these changes.

Not all forms of disruption are palatable to consumers. Both Millennials and Gen-Xers have very low opinions of Bitcoin, ranking the crypto-currency near the bottom of all financial brands surveyed for Appeal and Trustworthyness.

Takeaway

Brands that are disrupting industries are brands that are worth investment. They are the brands that are meeting the needs of the next generation of users within a given area before anyone else. Analyzing data from E-Score Brand allows you to spot industry disruptors, and identify which brands have the potential to disrupt by comparing dozens of attributes for similarities.

Resources

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