Advertising agency Isobel, in association with YouGov,  has shared the results of its ‘Family Brands 2009‘ survey. This is a survey of 1,500 people’s views on how socially-responsible, caring and good at listening 100 selected brands are.

The attributes of socially-responsible and caring are included in our own Civil Branding surveys, amongst many other attributes, which is why we picked up on this survey. Being good at listening is something all brands should strive for these days.

We were interested at the ‘family’ take on these attributes in the Isobel survey. Our research indicates that it is younger adults who are more interested in the socially-responsible and caring attributes of brands than the typically older parent group. Why does socially-responsible and caring, and being good at listening for that matter, equal family?

There is something going here though. The brands that scored top in the survey also score well in our Civil Branding surveys (eg M&S, The Co-operative,  Boots). We believe that people like it when brands help us to think about today’s social challenges, and maybe give us a nudge in the right direction. OK, this equates to parental behaviour. We are in the ‘caring noughties’ after all, so the ‘family’ construct is probably quite useful.

As a taster of our Civil Branding surveys, here’s one on Cadbury.