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Marketing technology software vendors have achieved little brand recognition, according to the results of an exclusive survey of more than 600 Marketing Land readers.

Recognition of marketing technology brands is limited to just a handful of companies. Only 10 companies achieved significant recognition in the unaided brand study. They were named as recognizable brands by more than 10% of those responding.

Almost 90% of companies were mentioned by fewer than 1% of those responding.

Marketing Land Survey 2014 - Chart 1

Percent of Participants Responding

Source: Marketing Land Brand Survey, November-December 2013 (605 respondents)

Survey Methodology

We invited Marketing Land readers, by invitations in website banners and e-mail, to answer this question: “List the first 10 digital marketing technology companies that come to mind. (You must enter at least 3 responses. Do not include agencies.)” Survey participants then entered responses in text boxes with no further guidance about how to answer.

More than 600 Marketing Land readers participated in the survey. The average participant responded with 5.3 companies. A total of nearly 3200 responses were gathered. Three prizes, an iPad Air and two iPod Minis were offered as incentives for completing the survey.

Nearly 60% of those completing the survey said they are corporate marketers; 34% said they work at an agency. 60% also work at companies with less than $25 million in annual revenue. Another 27% work at companies with $25 million-$500 million in sales, while 13% work in enterprises with more than $500 million in sales.

Google, Moz & HubSpot Most Recognized Brands

Google and its acquired brands were the most mentioned. Slightly more than 50% (51.6%) of respondents mentioned the company. Nine Google brands were cited, including DoubleClick, AdMob, YouTube and Wildfire. “Google” was the most popular response; 80% of those mentioning a company brand chose “Google” to identify it.

SEO and analytics software company Moz and small/medium business marketing automation company HubSpot were the second and third most mentioned companies, each recognized by about 25% of Marketing Land readers. Both companies have been content marketing advocates and have worked jointly to popularize the phrase “inbound” marketing.

Moz appears to have been extremely successful in communicating its new brand name to marketers. In May 2013, the company changed its name from “SEOMoz” to “Moz.”  More than 85% of those mentioning the company called it “Moz” less than 9 months after the name change.

Enterprise IT Giants Have Mixed Brand Recognition

Four enterprise IT giants that have moved aggressively into marketing software with acquisitions – Adobe, IBM, Oracle and Salesforce.com — have achieved mixed brand recognition results, according to the survey.

Salesforce.com and Adobe ranked 4th and 5th overall in the survey when their acquired brands were rolled up in the totals. They were mentioned by 19.5% and 17.9% of respondents, respectively.

Salesforce.com achieved its overall ranking on the strength of recognition of acquired brands. “Salesforce.com” accounted for just half of the company’s mentions, followed by “Exact Target” (27%), “Pardot” (16%), “Radian6” (7%) and “BuddyMedia” (1%).

In contrast, Adobe has been more successful in subsuming the brands of its acquisitions. Nearly 85% of respondents mentioned “Adobe”. “Omniture” was the only other frequently mentioned Adobe brand. Other Adobe acquisitions, including Efficient Frontier and Demdex, were not mentioned.

Oracle ranked 12th in the survey. Like Salesforce, acquired properties contributed to most of the recognition. Marketing automation vendor Eloqua, acquired by Oracle in December 2012, accounted for ⅔ of mentions of the company. “Oracle” was mentioned by just 17% of those citing the company or its acquisitions.

IBM ranked 24th in the survey. More than 70% of those mentioning IBM or one of its acquired brands cited “IBM”.

10 Most Recognized Marketing Technology Brands

Marketing Land Survey - Chart 2

Source: Marketing Land Brand Survey, November-December 2013 (605 respondents)

Enterprise, SMB Survey Results Available

Survey results varied depending on the respondent’s company size. Marketing Land editors prepared summaries based on respondents from small/medium businesses (SMBs) of $25 million to $500 million in annual revenue, and those from enterprise level companies of more than $500 million in annual revenue. These results are available as a free download here.