Brand Personality 2014

Transcription

1 Brand Personality Behavioural. Experimental. Statistical.

2 Top Brands Most Honest Brand Most Innovative Brand Most Powerful Brand Most Prestigious Brand Most Green Brand Best Overall Brand Decision Technology Brand Personality 1

3 Welcome to Decision Technology s 10th Annual Brand Personality survey. This report summarizes our unique insights into how some of the UK s biggest brands have performed in. As always, this year s survey contains some fascinating results that get behind the headlines and show what the UK public really thinks. For example, while the increasingly-popular UK Independence Party position themselves as political outsiders, they are perceived to be as untrustworthy as their rivals the Conservative Party. Read on to find out who the UK public see as the most (and least) Honest, Innovative, Prestigious, Powerful and Green brands of, based on a survey of over 1000 consumers. We also report s most and least positively perceived brands overall and look back over the last decade to see which brands have fared best and worst since our survey began ten years ago. Decision Technology Brand Personality 2

4 Contents Top Brands... 1 Welcome... 2 Contents... 3 Brands Tracked in... 4 Brand Personality Traits... 5 Honesty... 6 Innovation... 7 Power... 8 Prestige... 9 Green-ness Sentiment Industry Personalities Decade in Review About Decision Technology Decision Technology Brand Personality 3

5 Brands Tracked in New brands added in : First Utility, Ovo Energy, Betfair, Paddy Power, Daily Mail, Netflix, Ocado, Green Party, UKIP Decision Technology Brand Personality 4

6 Brand Personality Traits What is Brand Personality? It is well known that people have measurable personalities that can be used to predict their behaviour in new situations. According to the leading model of human personality, the myriad adjectives we use to describe people can be distilled into just five key dimensions or traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. There is also evidence that animals have personalities too. Our own research, as well as studies from the US, have shown that the same personality measurement methodologies can be applied to companies and organizations to measure their brand personality. Brand personality also appears to be related to performance and financial results. We have identified a five-factor model of brand personality. Each factor is represented by a weighted mix of adjectives that help characterize them. For example, the Honest dimension is characterized by adjectives like caring and trustworthy. The Traits Explained Our first trait, Honesty, measures a brand s integrity. Trustworthy brands that are perceived to care about their customers will receive high Honesty scores. Innovation tracks the energy and creativity of a brand. Stale or copy-cat brands receive a lower score on this measure. Power relates to presence and dominance in the market. Ubiquitous and widely-purchased brands score highly on this trait. Prestige is concerned with the social significance associated with a brand. It is typically related to exclusivity and quality. Finally, Green-ness is a measure of perceived environmental impact. In addition, we also report the overall positive or negative Sentiment associated with each brand, as measured by the tendency for consumers to associate that brand with positive or negative adjectives of any kind. Decision Technology Brand Personality 5

7 Honesty An Oxbridge rivalry heads the list of most honest brands, with Oxford taking the top spot from Cambridge, who topped last year s list. As in previous years, many high street retailers are seen as honest organisations, including as John Lewis, the Body Shop and Marks and Spencer. To find out more about brand trust, go to our website where you can read our research brief on the topic. At the other end of the scale, energy companies have recovered from the big drop in trust seen in, finding themselves outside of the least honest brands in. In contrast, political parties continue to be mistrusted, with UKIP and the Conservative Party faring especially badly. Most Honest Brands Least Honest Brands 1 st 5 1 st 11 Cancer 2 nd - FIFA 2 nd NEW Help for Heroes 3 rd 2 y 3 rd 1 Oxfam 4 th 1 Ladbrokes 4 th 3 5 th 1 The Sun 5 th 4 John Lewis 6 th NEW William Hill 6 th 10 Body Shop 7 th 2 7 th NEW Marks & Spencer 8 th 2 British Parliament 8 th 9 NHS 9 th 1 Ryanair 9 th 13 Cambridge University 10 th 7 The Premier League 10 th 1 Decision Technology Brand Personality 6

8 Innovation The list of most innovative brands is made up of technology firms, online businesses and car makers, including some of the world s largest and most valuable companies. Facebook no longer appears in the top ten innovative brands and Sony and Amazon continue to fall from previous years. This year s big winner is Jaguar who jump eleven places to take fourth spot on our list. The Liberal Democrats are again the least innovative brands, closely followed by The Labour Party and The Conservative Party. Most Innovative Brands Least Innovative Brands 1 st - Lib Dem Party 1 st - Amazon 2 nd - William Hill 2 nd 6 Google 3 rd - Labour Party 3 rd - c 4 th 11 Ladbrokes 4 th 14 5 th 1 European Parliament 5 th 6 Facebook 6 th 3 R & Sun All 6 th 3 ebay 7 th 3 Prudential 7 th 3 Samsung 8 th 3 y 8 th 6 Sony 9 th 2 Scottish & Southern Energy 9 th 10 Sky TV 10 th 6 f 10 th 5 Decision Technology Brand Personality 7

9 Power Cambridge and Oxford Universities still find themselves in the top ten powerful brands. Shell has jumped 13 places to make it into the most powerful brands, leapfrogging rival BP. Google, on the other hand, has seen a five place drop. The Green Party has taken the top spot for least powerful brand, with Liberal Democrats and UKIP only a few places below. Smaller challenger brands in industries such as mobile telecoms and energy make up the rest of the list of least powerful brands. Most Powerful Brands Least Powerful Brands British Army 1 st - 1 st NEW TV The Police 2 nd 1 HTC 2 nd NEW Microsoft 3 rd 2 Phones4U 3 rd 9 Bank of England 4 th 2 3 Mobile 4 th 3 BBC TV 5 th 2 Gap 5 th NEW NHS 6 th 2 T 6 th NEW Google 7 th 5 Lib Dem Party 7 th 5 British Parliament 8 th 1 Uswitch.com 8 th 4 Apple 9 th 13 Scottish & Southern Energy 9 th NEW Coca-Cola 10 th 3 William Hill 10 th NEW Decision Technology Brand Personality 8

10 Prestige Car manufacturers maintain their grip on the top of this year s most Prestigious brand list. Oxford University still remains more prestigious than Cambridge while Marks and Spencer falls out of the top ten prestigious brands, replaced by British Airways. Poundland retains its place this year as the least prestigious brand, with rival discount retailers Lidl, Aldi and Asda also on the list. Facebook now finds itself in the top ten least prestigious brands, falling thirteen places since last year. Most Prestigious Brands Least Prestigious Brands Jaguar 1 st - 1 st - Mercedes-Benz 2 nd - The Sun 2 nd 1 BMW 3 rd 1 Aldi 3 rd 1 Oxford University 4 th 1 4 th - Cambridge University 5 th 2 Ryanair 5 th - Audi 6 th 1 6 th 1 Apple 7 th 1 7 th 13 British Airways 8 th - 8 th 2 John Lewis 9 th 3 9 th 7 Waitrose 10 th 1 Facebook 10 th 2 Decision Technology Brand Personality 9

11 Green-ness Perhaps unsurprisingly, new entrant The Green Party takes the top spot for most green brands. While Google has slipped down the list of the most green brands, Wikipedia and comparethemarket.com show that many consumers believe online businesses to be inherently green. Meanwhile, Sainsbury s has jumped twelve places to overtake rival Waitrose and is only two places below Marks and Spencer. Similarly unsurprisingly, the list of least green brands is dominated by airlines, oil companies and car manufacturers as in previous years. Most Green Brands Least Green Brands Royal Society for Protection of Birds 1 st NEW Ryanair 1 st - Body Shop 2 nd 1 EasyJet 2 nd - Oxfam 3 rd 1 BP 3 rd 1 Help for Heroes 4 th 2 British Airways 4 th 1 Unicef 5 th 3 Shell 5 th 1 Cancer Research 6 th 2 Virgin Atlantic 6 th 1 Marks & Spencer 7 th 13 Jaguar 7 th - Google 8 th 12 Castrol 8 th 4 Amazon 9 th - Mercedes-Benz 9 th 5 Waitrose 10 th 16 Renault 10 th 11 Decision Technology Brand Personality 10

12 Sentiment Apple retains its crown as the brand that overall attracts the most positive sentiment from UK consumers. This year, The University of Oxford has moved up five places and now has a more positive sentiment than University of Cambridge. Audi has jumped seven places to make it into this year s top ten list. In the least positive sentiment list, The Liberal Democrats now take the top spot with the new addition of UKIP finding itself in the table too. Bookmakers also fare badly, with new addition Paddy Power making the list while Ladbrokes falls thirteen places in this year s ranking. Most Positive Sentiment Least Positive Sentiment 1 st - 1 st 2 2 nd 5 2 nd - 3 rd 1 3 rd 2 4 th 2 4 th 13 5 th 2 5 th 7 6 th 2 6 th - 7 th 7 7 th NEW 8 th 3 8 th 1 9 th 3 9 th 4 10 th - 10 th NEW Decision Technology Brand Personality 11

13 Industry Personalities Every brand is different and extremes of personality difference can exist within a single industry. For example, Online Google is one of the UK s most powerful brands whilst LinkedIn is in the least powerful list. Nonetheless, there are also interesting commonalities between brands in each industry. By averaging across the personality ratings of each brand within an industry we can focus on the key differences between industries. For example, Technology brands are positively perceived due to their innovativeness. Car Makers are not at all green, but compensate by often being quite prestigious. Political parties and Utility companies are least positively perceived, primarily because they tend to be seen as dishonest and not very innovative. Industry Personalities in Institutions Technology Car Makers FMCG Online Supermarkets Retailers Brewers Media Telecoms Airlines Oil & Gas Insurers Banks Utilities Political Parties Sentiment Innovation Honesty Green Dominance Prestige Decision Technology Brand Personality 12

14 Decade in Review A lot has changed in the UK since In that year, we saw Tony Blair lead the Labour Party to a third consecutive term in office; YouTube, the most popular video sharing website, was founded; and Pope Benedict XVI succeeded Pope John Paul II, becoming the 265th pope. Since then we have seen a global financial crash and recession; another new pope; the UK has hosted the 2012 Olympic Games; and England have failed to win another three World Cups. Our Brand Personality survey has undergone many changes too, with our list of surveyed brands constantly evolving to reflect the changing popularity of brands and organisations. Nonetheless, the brand personalities of forty-seven of the UK s bestknown brands have been tracked consistently in our survey over the last ten years. So how have they fared? The biggest winner is ITV, who saw the biggest increase in trust and overall sentiment towards their brand. Retailer John Lewis showed the biggest rise in perceived innovation and fashionability, while online competitor Amazon.com has seen the biggest rise in perceived power and dominance. EasyJet became seen as a more prestigious brand, though as it still languishes in our bottom ten list there is still a long way to go! The biggest loser is Tesco, whose recent poor performance is a result of declining trust and sentiment over many years. The oncedominant supermarket has suffered the biggest drop in perceived power and dominance since The financial crash and subsequent scandals also damaged trust in banks, with taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland s brand suffering the biggest drop in trust over the last ten years. Biggest Riser Biggest Faller Honesty Innovation Power Prestige Sentiment Decision Technology Brand Personality 13

15 About Decision Technology Founded in 2002, Decision Technology specialises in helping businesses and policymakers understand and manage customer decision-making, from acquisition through to retention and all the points in-between. Dectech seeks to define a new category that is both market research agency and strategy consultant. Hence, we deliver field research and customer insights alongside financial analysis and business advice. We believe in this hybrid approach because it marries the necessary focus on commercial results with a practical understanding of what drives human behaviour. For further information please see our website at Decision Technology Brand Personality 14