Three categories
TGI conducts an annual national brand survey, measuring the usage and loyalty of brands across SA consumers, culminating in the Icon Awards, which are split into three categories, namely: Category Winners (brands with the highest overall score per industry), Icon Brands (true rainbow nation brands ) and Potential Icon Brands (runners-up to the Icon Brands).
Iconic Brand status was awarded to: Sunlight Bar Soap, Sunlight Washing Up Liquid, Jik Bleach, Sta-Soft Fabric Softener, Dulux, ABSA, KFC, Simba Crisps, All Gold, Robertson's spices, Crosse & Blackwell, Albany Bread, Coca-Cola, Clover Milk, Nokia, Vodacom, Pick n Pay, Checkers, Edgars, Mr Price, Avon and Revlon.
Potential Icon Brand status, or the 'next generation', was awarded to: Shoprite, MTN, Kiwi Shoe Polish, Mr. Min Furniture Polish, Jet, Woolworths, Truworths, Mrs HS Balls, JC Le Roux, Inkomazi Sour Milk and Always Ultra.
Category winners included:
The complete list of winners in all the categories will be available shortly on www.tgi.co.za; inaugural 2010 winners may be found here.
"Red seems to have become the dominant brand colour. Many of the Iconic Brands have red incorporated into the brand. It may not be a trend but it is certainly interesting. [It] has also been a year of reinvention by brands," says Dustine Tobler, TGI marketing director, highlighting Vodacom, Cell C and PWC.
Five key trends
According to Tobler, thanks to the manner in which the questions were asked in the survey, it is also possible to identify five key trends and findings:
The consumer-brand relationship is evolving - consumers are not willing to be served anymore. They want to create and are dictating change, therefore it is up to brands to listen and respond to this change. Brands that can connect and are approachable were identified as FNB and Capitec.
Heritage brands that have been tried and tested after decades of being in an increasingly competitive industry have proved their longevity by becoming household names with which customers have developed emotional or personal connections. Old SA brands such as Koo, All Gold, Old Mutual and Telkom have established themselves as leaders in their categories.
Price is no longer the key denominator anymore. A quality product that lasts longer is the main driver to consumers at present. Brands such as All Gold, Koo, Labello, KFC and Revlon are brands mostly used by consumers, even though they are not the cheapest brands in their competing categories.
Just as much as consumers are taking their brands to heart, they take brands to heart that have a heart. KFC's score has increased by 9% due to its consistent sincere focus on communities, specifically regarding its "Add Hope" campaign that has generated R30 million for feeding SA.
Consumers are more likely to trust and use brands that are sincere with their customers and genuine about themselves. Focusing on aligning corporate values with brand communication will develop a strong market position and presence.
Employing a random probability sample design, 15 000 face-to-face interviews were conducted among SA adults living in communities within a population size of more than 8000. Representing over 18 million South Africans, the data was weighted using STATS SA's population estimates.
TGI measured 450 product categories, of which 41 were included in the Icon Brand Survey. Each of the categories is based on the preference of a unique market segment in the heterogeneous SA market and, within each category brand, status levels are based on brand usage and loyal behaviour.
To achieve iconic status, a brand must score a usage and loyalty score of 30% or more across all race groups within the entire weighted universe. A category winner is the brand with the highest score overall, irrespective of whether it has a 30% score within each race group. So it is possible that a brand which wins a category with 60%m but which does not have a 30% score among white people, is not an iconic brand.
Winning brands are not necessarily the cheapest but rather those that consumers know they can rely on to consistently meet both brand and value expectations. Real consumption and loyalty of brands are measured with a local relevance. The brands are not a relative measure of liking and attractiveness or perceptions, but rather what consumers choose to use consistently.
