The top 10 "coolest" brands in B.C. might surprise you

Global marketing company Ipsos released a list of B.C.’s top 10 “coolest” brands as chosen by British Columbians themselves, and the results might surprise you.

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People who participated in the study were asked to choose which B.C.-based brands they considered the coolest out of a list of 65. The study found that above all else, millennials value experiences over objects and people when it comes to what is and isn’t cool.

Based on that information, here is the list of the top 10 “coolest” B.C. brands:

1. MEC
2. Vancouver Canucks
3. lululemon
4. Granville Island Brewing company
5. EA
6. A&W
7. YVR
8. Aritzia
9. Vancity
10. Cactus Club

Executive Vice President of Ipsos Michael Rodenburgh said he believes these brands made the top 10 because they all display a certain level of authenticity.

“One of the things we asked consumers is ‘what would make a brand cool or make a brand uncool’ and generally the top 10 brands all engage in pretty cool things authentic to their brand and they’re heavily focused on giving value or utility to their consumers,” Rodenburgh told Vancity Buzz.

“Brands that are typically ‘uncool’ do uncool things.”

The worst things a brand could do to lower their cool factor, says Rodenburgh, is post something related to a celebrity, use memes or share unrelated content to the brand (which he says is just pushing random content out to people) and remind you of their product or service.

A large part of what makes a brand cool is transparency, and lululemon made the top three despite having controversies attached to the name. Rodenburgh believes it’s a testament to the strength of the brand.

“I can’t speak with confidence that lululemon did something well or not well, but by virtue of their number three ranking, I have to assume that the average consumer has at least forgiven lululemon for their missteps in the past,” he said.

“Perhaps the brand wasn’t tarnished as much as we like to think they were.”

Other things a brand can do to up their cool factor is respond to customer complaints, allow people to post comments or ideas about the brand, and post things about local events and causes. In general, brands having a certain level of accountability will make consumers come back again and again.

Another surprising brand to make the top 10 was the airport, but Rodenburgh thinks it’s because YVR accurately represents the province.

“As airports go it’s a pretty unique experience. The design of it, it reflects very much British Columbia and it consistently gets ranked globally in the top airports in the world.”