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2009 Sunday Times Top Brand Winners

There were various surprises at the Sunday Times Top Brands Awards for 2009, on Thursday, 20 August 2009, at Lexus Fourways, Johannesburg, which this year included categories for social and digital networks and new brand categories such as sunglasses, watches and fashion.

Over and above aligning the research with the latest brand thinking, more “exotic and modern” categories were also included for this year's award.

“Religious groupings dominated social networks while Facebook was announced as the winning digital network followed by MXit and My Space,” explains Neil Higgs, director for innovation and development at TNS Research Surveys, which was commissioned by Avusa Media to conduct the research.

“Sports clothing was easily won by Nike while Levi's comfortably took the top spot for general clothing category. Rayban came in first place for sunglasses followed by Police and Dolce and Gabbana. Michel Herbelin was the consumer's favourite watch brand.”

Shifts in winners

Shifts in winners included FNB edging out last year's winner, Absa, to claim the top spot for retail banks in the business-to-consumer category and smaller air carrier British Airways ousting South African Airways to claim first place for airlines in the business-to-business category.

Other surprises on the night saw the smaller Apple Mac computer brand leap from seventh position to second place in the business-to-business category, showing that brand size doesn't mean the brand is necessarily better, and contesting HP, the category winner.

“Smaller brands holding their own amongst the more heavyweight contenders this year is a result of us commissioning TNS Research Surveys to provide a new and innovative research model that would let loved brands whether big or small stand out,” said Enver Groenewald, Avusa Media GM: advertising revenue and strategic communications.

“The results also indicate that smaller competitors that decided not to cut their marketing and advertising budgets during these tough economic times have reaped the rewards and might be gaining some market share.”

Grand Prix

For the Grand Prix categories of consumers top brands, Pick n Pay stole the show by winning two out of the four awards despite Coca-Cola once again winning overall favourite brand, followed by Vodacom and then Koo and Nike tied in third position. The leading South African supermarket jumped four spots from fifth position to first place for the company doing the most to uplift the community and claimed first prize as the company doing the most to promote environmentally-friendly behaviour.

The only award that might not have been that unexpected was the announcement that Nelson Mandela was named the favourite South African personality for both consumers and business people. Consumers chose political rivals as the next favourite SA personalities after Mandela, with Jacob Zuma as the second most popular person, followed by Helen Zille in third position.

“This is possibly an indication of how important this year's elections were for the South African public,” points out Groenewald.

Interviews

To get the results for the awards a combination of face-to-face and telephonic interviews were conducted with 3500 adults and 400 business people to make up 3900 in total.

To create the results for the 2009 Top Brands Awards, individuals were asked to say which brands they used regularly and then to rate all the brands they knew on a points-out-of-ten basis. From this, TNS Research Surveys looked at how big a brand was in terms of users. Then it calculated a new measure - informally termed ‘Brand Clout' - that looked at how much better a brand was rated than average amongst its users and then amongst its non-users.

This told TNS Research Sureys if a brand's users were much happier than the users of other brands, and if a brand was more aspirational amongst its non-users than average. By combining these measures, they allowed not only big brands to shine but also smaller brands that are much loved or desired.

Grand Prix categories

	Consumer Top Brands	1st	2nd	3rd
1	Overall favourite brand	Coca-Cola	Vodacom	Koo/ Nike
2	Company doing the most to uplift community	Pick n Pay	Coca-Cola	Vodacom
3	Company that has done the most to promote "Green"	Pick n Pay	Woolworths	Nedbank
4	South African personality	Nelson Mandela	Jacob Zuma	Helen Zille

Business-to-consumer national

		1st	2nd	3rd
5	Alcoholic spirits	Jack Daniels	Johnnie Walker	Jameson
6	Alcoholic Coolers	Red Square	Smirnoff	Brutal Fruit
7	Beers	Carling Black Label	Hansa	Heineken
8	Ciders	Savanna	Hunters	Redds
9	Chocolates	Cadbury Slabs	Lunch Bar	Bar One
10	Cellphones	Nokia	Samsung	Sony Ericsson
11	Convenience & Grocery store	Shoprite	Pick n Pay / Pick n Pay Hypermarket	Spar/ KwikSpar/Super Spar
12	Weekly newspapers	Sunday Times	City Press	Sunday Sun
13	Daily newspapers	Daily Sun	Sowetan	The Star
14	Retail Banks	FNB	ABSA	Standard Bank
15	Soft Drinks	Coca Cola	Fanta	Sprite
16	Fruit based drinks	Liquifruit	Tropika	Clover Fruit Juice
17	Telecommunication Providers	Vodacom	MTN	Cell C
18	Fast Food	KFC	Nando's	Steers

Business to Consumer metropolitan consumer

		1st	2nd	3rd
19	Domestic Airline	SAA	British Airways	Mango
20	Cars	Mercedes Benz	Toyota	BMW
21	Sports Clothing brands	Nike	Adidas	Puma
22	Fashion Clothing Brand	Levi's	Daniel Hechter	La Coste
23	Energy and Sports drinks	Red Bull	Energade	Powerade
24	Long term Insurer	Old Mutual	Metropolitan Life	Hollard
25	Short term Insurer	Outsurance	AA Insurance	Hollard
26	Loyalty/Reward programmes	Ster Kinekor	Clicks Club	MySchool
27	Petrol stations	BP	Engen	Shell
28	Digital Networks	Facebook	Mxit	MySpace
29	Sunglasses	Rayban	Police	D&G
30	Watches	Michel Herbelin	Rolex	Guess

Business-to-business

x	B-2-B Top Brands: Category	1st	2nd	3rd
31	Personality	Nelson Mandela	Jacob Zuma	Charlize Theron
32	Banks (including corporate and merchant banking)	Standard Bank	FNB	ABSA
33	Cellphones owned	Nokia	Blackberry	Samsung
34	Domestic Airlines	British Airways	Kulula	SAA
35	Computer and laptop brands	HP	Apple Mac	Dell
36	Car Hire	Avis	Budget	Europcar
37	Short Term Insurance companies	Santam	Mutual and Federal	Zurich
38	Long Term Insurance companies	Discovery Life	Liberty	Old Mutual
39	Medial Aids	Discovery Health	Momentum	Fedhealth
40	Business Media - Electronic (Radio and TV)	DSTV	Talk Radio 702	RSG
41	Business Media - Print (Newspapers and Magazines)	Business Day	Financial Mail	Business Times
42	Hotels	Sun International Hotels and Resorts	Hilton	Southern Sun