October 15th, 2008
Following on from the recent release of the Best Global Brands 2008 survey, in which we commented on the first-time appearance of BlackBerry, it is with interest that we refer you back to Interbrand’s Best Canadian Brand 2008 study from June this year.
In its second biennial ranking (by brand value) of the Best Canadian Brands, the number one spot – and a completely new entrant since the previous survey in 2006 – went to BlackBerry, the mobile telecommunications company. BlackBerry’s success in both surveys is made all the more remarkable given that no Canadian brand had ever before featured in Interbrand’s Best Global Brands study.
The Best Canadian Brands survey acknowledges that, historically, many of Canada’s best brands have been simply that - great Canadian brands. They help to fuel, feed, facilitate and finance the lives of Canadians and hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Canada.
Yet is that enough in today’s global economy, where geographical borders have never been so easy to transcend, and brand opportunities and threats can come from almost anywhere in the world? Indeed, many of the largest economic growth opportunities now exist in markets outside of North America; more specifically in emerging markets.
The survey did uncover some good news for Canadian brands in the fact that, overall, the Best Canadian Brands have built $13.2 billion in additional brand value since the 2006 survey – equal to a growth rate of 45.9%.
However, the total value of Canada’s top 25 brands in 2008 is only US$42 billion, compared with well over $700 billion for the top 25 global brands. In fact, the top 25 Canadian brands’ total brand value is significantly less than the US$66.7 billion brand value for Coca-Cola alone, which takes top spot in the global survey.
Returning to the success of BlackBerry, this is a great example of what a brand can achieve if it thinks globally. With in excess of 14 million users around the world, and distribution channels in more than 135 countries, it comes as no surprise that some 92% of the company’s revenues come from outside Canada. BlackBerry truly is a global brand.
The top 10 brands in Canada are shown below (in CAN$ million):
- BlackBerry (Consumer Electronics) $5,607.7
- RBC (Banking/Financial Services) $4,141.1
- TD Canada Trust (Banking/Financial Services) $3,779.6
- Shoppers Drug Mart (Retail) $3,137.5
- Petro-Canada (Energy) $3,132.6
- Manulife (Insurance) $2,550.9
- Bell (Telecom) $2,537.0
- Scotiabank (Banking/Financial Services) $1,870.4
- Canadian Tire (Retail) $1,828.5
- Tim Hortons (Restaurant) $1,604.6
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October 14th, 2008
To mark its 30th birthday, Marketing Week commissioned a YouGov survey to find out what the British public thinks have been the best brands, new products and advertising campaigns of the past 30 years.
More than 2,000 respondents chose their top three in each category of the study.
Microsoft beat BBC and Google into joint second place as the best brand of the past 30 years. All three of these top brands finished some way ahead of their nearest rival.
Google, however, was announced clear winner in the best new product category, with the popular search engine receiving 47% of mentions, a third more than its nearest rival, SMS text messaging. With Freeview, Sky Plus and Apple’s iPod all ranking highly too, it would appear that more recent product launches have an advantage by being at the front of people’s minds.
Conversely, in the best advertising campaign category, older campaigns proved most popular. With the exception of last year’s Cadbury Gorilla campaigns, which polled second, this category was dominated by ad campaigns of yesteryear. The winner was the Nescafé Gold Blend series of adverts, which launched in the UK two decades ago and ran for several years.
To read about this survey in full, click here.
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New Product Development, Branding, Advertising Research, Market Research |
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October 13th, 2008
We’re pleased to announce that B2B International’s latest newsletter, Insight, is available now to download.
Chock-full of the latest market research news and views from B2B International’s three offices, we also use this issue to make some timely suggestions of marketing/market research strategies and actions which you might find appropriate in these more challenging times.
Please click here to read our Autumn 2008 Insight. To view previous issues of our newsletter, click here.
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October 10th, 2008
Paul Hague looks back at his personal experiences – both good and bad – with the banking sector to highlight the importance of building and maintaining relationships with your customers, whatever the industry you operate in.
As a penniless student in Durham, I needed a bank. I had no conceptions or experience of banking and my choice was made entirely on convenience. Walking down the Bailey in the centre of the town, I was attracted by the swinging sign of a grasshopper. The bank was called Martins.
Half an hour later as I left the bank, clutching my initiation pack and a cheque book, I felt that I was somebody and going somewhere. Martin’s didn’t remain independent for long, however; it was shortly swallowed up by Barclay’s, with whom I did business for over 20 years.
In the first few years of this relationship they fulfilled all that I needed from a bank in both my business and private banking capacity. And then, things began to change.
The bank manager who I had got to know was abandoned as the bank rationalised and began its drive to greater efficiency and profitability. It wasn’t long before I was just a number.
One day this number received a letter through the post saying that a stamp collection that I had in their safe deposit would now be subject to a charge. This was not especially unreasonable but, in the context of the amount of business I was doing with the bank, I thought it merited a phone call to tell me this rather than a snotty letter. And it followed on from a constant series of initiatives to reduce services or find opportunities to charge for them. At the time, my business and personal wealth should have been sufficient for the bank to have some slight concerns about losing me.
Since my patience had by this point snapped, I dialled the bank, was answered by an automatic answering machine, and was ultimately directed by a series of numbers to someone I could speak to. If, at this time, I had been offered an apology or indeed if any interest had been shown in retaining me as a customer, I am sure I would have still been doing business with Barclays. But it was clear that they were indifferent; I really was just a number.
After much tedious changing of standing orders, I moved to NatWest Bank. It wasn’t long after joining that bank that I received a phone call that invited me to move to a private banking facility within their banking group. There I was introduced to real people who knew my name and who gave me their business cards, inviting me to contact them if ever I needed their financial services. And I have to say that they haven’t let me down.
As I look back over this experience I cannot believe the stupidity of Barclay’s to give up the loyalty I had shown them over the years. As a lifetime customer, my business was worth millions and yet to them I was still just a number.
I am reminded of this story following a recent survey that B2B International carried out into banking services among SMEs. Less than a third of SMEs believed that Barclays fulfilled the role of being an important business partner. This compared with the Royal Bank of Scotland (which headed the league table), where over three quarters of respondents thought that it fulfilled the status of being an important business partner.
Banks get kidded into believing that they have loyal customers because they have a relatively low churn. It is not because they are satisfying their customers, rather it is due to the considerable difficulty a customer faces when switching banks. Customers are effectively hostages.
So what is it that creates a relationship with a bank or indeed with any other supplier? Relationships are nearly always between people rather than inanimate objects. Getting rid of the bank manager and having a constant stream of different people supplying services destroys any opportunity to create a relationship. People value someone to talk to; someone who will actually listen and who will genuinely want to help.
The second point to make is that relationships are built up over time. A relationship that has satisfactorily endured a number of years is capable of withstanding problems – and problems are inevitable in any business service.
As we watch the financial services sector move into meltdown, we know that the greed of bankers has played a big part. But in the High Street, and particularly with business customers, it has been the banks’ lack of understanding and unwillingness to listen that has been the cause of their demise.
The moral that I draw from this blog today is that understanding customers and building relationships are the two most important elements of the marketing task. This is not difficult; it is not rocket science. In fact it is blindingly obvious and yet it is so often ignored.
Posted in
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October 8th, 2008
A recent article appearing in The Wall Street Journal, entitled In Chaos Lies Opportunity, used a racing analogy to illustrate how different companies become the winners and losers in times of economic instability:
Like dangerous curves on a racetrack, economic downturns create more opportunities for companies to move from the middle of the pack into leadership positions than any other time in business.
Unlike straight-aways where leaders can thrive on raw power alone, steep curves require strategic finesse. That often results in dramatic differences in performance as leaders steer out of the curve.
The article goes on to highlight the example of Southwest Airlines, which surged ahead from its competitors during the recession of 2001. As other rivals struggled and fell by the wayside, Southwest adopted a strategy of lowering its fares to gain market share. Promoting its price advantage by boosting its advertising accordingly, it also built solid relations with its workforce by avoiding layoffs when others in the airline industry were cutting jobs.
Yet Southwest is not unique in its remarkable success in the face of seeming adversity:
About 24 percent more firms moved from the back of the pack to the front in the 2001 downturn compared with the subsequent period of economic calm, according to an eight-year study by Bain & Company that analyzed the net profit margins and sales growth of more than 2,500 companies. Meanwhile, about one-fifth of all leadership companies – those in the top quartile of financial performance in their industry – fell to the bottom quartile. By comparison only three-quarters as many companies made such dramatic gains or losses after the recession.
Obviously recessions affect different industries and different geographies in various ways and to different degrees. But this itself presents opportunities for the outward-looking and forward-thinking organization. Johnson & Johnson, GE and IBM are three companies said to have benefited from shifting their focus to economically healthier regions across the globe; in the second quarter of 2008, all have reported solid performance outside the U.S.
- More information on entering new markets is available on our main website.
- Many of our white papers discuss various ways in which you may be able to gain competitive advantage in difficult times.
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