1 week, 57 brands, 245 entries.

Last sunday, I decided I was going to track my significant interactions with brands (or branded objects / services) using Daytum.

At the time, I figured I would do this for a month.  I was blissfully unaware of how much of a time commitment that was.

So, after one week, here we are.  57 brands, 245 individual entries, and an awesome pie chart.

The top spots go to Club Monaco (37), Google (28), Apple (23), Body Shop (16), H+M (14), Starbucks (12), Roots (11), Zara (9), Tumblr (8), Twitter (8).

None of this is particularly shocking, but some specific things popped up to me looking at the information.  Roots, for instance, is just recurring use of two items, my wallet and a scarf.  But the fact that the wallet is in my pocket every day, means at least one daily interaction with Roots.  

(If someone asked me what the top ten brands I interact with were, Roots would probably not make the list.)

Similarly, Body Shop is semi-coincidence.  I bought several products on boxing day (body wash, skin cream, face wash) but don't really consider myself a Body Shop loyalist.  That said, I was interacting with up to three products from Body Shop every morning, making it outrank things like my car (Acura), my glasses (D+G) or public transportation (TTC).

Things I use every day ranked easily.  Companies that offer more than one product or service I use skyrocketed - I didn't think clothing would be such a huge factor, but it makes sense - dressing appropriately for winter requires about ten items of clothing, and I don't shop at too many different places.

The really interesting part was the changes in my behaviour brought on by knowing I would be tracking this information.  I'm conscious of the brands I associate with, but this was very different, literally altering my decisions based on thoughts like 'I've already been to Starbucks twice today, I should really try something else' and 'I don't really want to enter another brand into the tracking data, I'll wear the H+M socks instead'.  

I also began thinking about the amount of 'real estate' in my life I've decided to give to Apple, Google and Club Monaco.  Normally that was fairly invisible to me, as the justification for purchase or use is based (I hope) on functionality or enjoyment on my part.  What was more interesting to me was the amount of real estate I was giving to brands I'm more or less ambivalent about (again, Body Shop is a great example).

(I wasn't tracking instances, which is an important thing to note.  If I had been, this would have been impossible, and would be based mostly on how often I check my iPhone.)

Some of the things I use most visibly ranked substantially lower than things I don't really think about.  The brands I consider statements, or somewhat representative, did well, but not as well as a competitor with a broader product line.  This makes me wonder about the value of branding a product as a statement rather than a functional commodity.  Creating a badge that people want to be associated with is an excellent way to sell one thing.  But I was spending most days covered in stuff that wasn't overtly identifiable by brand - if the average person sees me in my day to day clothes, they won't immediately think of a brand, considering how often I get asked where some clothes are from.  Meanwhile, the bag that says 'Fred Perry' on it in massive lettering was only used once this week.

I don't know if that's a statement on me, or on the process I used, but I'm guessing it's both.

In terms of usable information, experiment fail.  But in terms of getting me to think differently about my brand interactions, it was a massive success.  

In short, the most successful brands, in terms of integrating themselves into my life, aren't the ones that I think about constantly.  I'm surrounded by brands I don't think about at all, and they are probably making a bigger subconscious impact than I think.

Oh, and I'm stopping this particular experiment.  I'm still a huge fan of Daytum, and will leave this information up there for the foreseeable future, but this was an exhausting experience.