Brand Personality 2012
Top Brands 2012
Most Honest
Brand 2012
Most Innovative
Brand 2012
Most Powerful
Brand 2012
Most Prestigious
Brand 2012
Most Green
Brand 2012
Best Overall
Brand 2012
©Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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Welcome to Decision Technology’s 8th Annual Brand Personality
survey. This year’s report has a brand new look, but still with all of
our unique insights into some of the UK’s biggest brands.
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, whilst MPs may have publically shamed Amazon,
Google and Starbucks over their tax affairs it is the Conservative
Party and the British Parliament who are languishing 3rd and 8th
from bottom in our ranking of the most trusted organizations.
Read on to find out who the UK public see as the most (and least)
Honest, Innovative, Prestigious, Powerful and Green brands of 2012,
based on a survey of over 700 consumers. We also report 2012’s
most and least positively perceived brands overall.
© Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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Contents
Top Brands 2012…. ................................................................................................................................. 1
Welcome ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Brands Tracked in 2012........................................................................................................................... 4
Brand Personality Traits .......................................................................................................................... 5
Honesty .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Innovation .......................................................................................................................................... 7
Power ................................................................................................................................................. 8
Prestige .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Green-ness ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Sentiment......................................................................................................................................... 11
Industry Personalities ........................................................................................................................... 12
About Decision Technology .................................................................................................................. 13
©Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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Brands Tracked in 2012
New brands added in 2012:
Jaguar, giffgaff, Phones4U, Poundland,
© Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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Brand Personality Traits
What is Brand Personality?
The Traits Explained
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 first trait, Honesty, measures a brand’s
integrity. Trustworthy brands that are
perceived to care about their customers will
receive high Honesty scores.
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.
©Decision Technology 2012
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.
Brand Personality 2012
5
Honesty
As in previous years, the list of most trusted brands is dominated by charities and public institutions,
but notable three retailers (John Lewis, the Body Shop and Marks and Spencer) are also in the top
ten. To find out more about building and protecting brand trust you can read the research brief we
published earlier in the year on our website.
At the other end of the scale, politicians continue to be mistrusted, with the Conservative Party
faring especially badly as the UK’s third least trusted organization. Social network Twitter may be
growing in popularity but it also suffered a big drop in trust, falling into the bottom ten brands.
Least Honest Brands
Most Honest Brands
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
European Parliament
1st
1st
2nd
FIFA
2nd
2nd
3rd
3rd
Conservative Party
3rd
7th
Oxfam
4th
4th
Ladbrokes
4th
8th
Unicef
5th
5th
The Sun
5th
4th
John Lewis
6th
9th
William Hill
6th
3rd
Body Shop
7th
12th
7th
24th
Marks & Spencer
8th
7th
British Parliament
8th
11th
NHS
9th
14th
Ryanair
9th
9th
10th
10th
The Premier League
10th
6th
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
Royal Society for Protection
of Birds
1st
1st
Cancer Research
2nd
Help for Heroes
Cambridge University
© Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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Innovation
The list of most innovative brands is made up of technology firms and online businesses, including
some of the world’s largest and most valuable companies. Notably Amazon have leap-frogged
Google into second place, perhaps due to their increasing forays into the world of hardware with
their line of Kindle e-readers and tablet computers.
Politicians again fare badly, with all three main political parties in the list of least innovative brands.
Least Innovative Brands
Most Innovative Brands
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
Lib Dem Party
1st
1st
4th
William Hill
2nd
11th
3rd
2nd
Labour Party
3rd
2nd
Microsoft
4th
3rd
Ladbrokes
4th
9th
Youtube
5th
7th
European Parliament
5th
5th
Facebook
6th
6th
Royal & Sun Alliance
6th
7th
eBay
7th
5th
Prudential
7th
6th
Samsung
8th
12th
Conservative Party
8th
3rd
Sony
9th
8th
Scottish & Southern Energy
9th
10th
Sky TV
10th
10th
Royal Bank of Scotland
10th
8th
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
Apple
1st
1st
Amazon
2nd
Google
©Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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Power
The organizations in our list of the most powerful brands of 2012 are unchanged from 2011, but
software giant Microsoft has slipped off the top spot whilst competitor Apple has climbed one place.
Mobile networks, retailers and handset manufacturers take many of the spots on the list of least
powerful brands, suggesting that consumers perceive the mobile market to be highly competitive,
except perhaps in the area of operating systems, with market leaders Google (Android) and Apple
(iOS) both in the list of most powerful brands.
Least Powerful Brands
Most Powerful Brands
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
giffgaff
1st
NEW
2nd
HTC
2nd
10th
3rd
1st
Phones4U
3rd
NEW
4th
5th
3 Mobile
4th
14th
5th
3rd
Gap
5th
3rd
NHS
6th
7th
Tesco Mobile
6th
4th
Google
7th
6th
Lib Dem Party
7th
5th
British Parliament
8th
9th
Uswitch.com
8th
2nd
Apple
9th
10th
Scottish & Southern
Energy
9th
12th
Coca-Cola
10th
8th
William Hill
10th
23rd
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
British Army
1st
4th
The Police
2nd
Microsoft
Bank of England
BBC TV
TV
© Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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Prestige
Newly tracked in 2012, Jaguar is this year’s most Prestigious brand. Poundland has the more dubious
honour of entering the survey this year as the least prestigious brand.
Some great rivalries also have a special place in these rankings: Mercedes-Benz is more prestigious
than BMW; Oxford University more prestigious than Cambridge; and (at the other extreme) easyJet is
more prestigious than Ryanair.
Least Prestigious Brands
Most Prestigious Brands
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
1st
NEW
1st
NEW
2nd
1st
3rd
3rd
4th
2nd
5th
6th
Poundland
Jaguar
2nd
1st
The Sun
Mercedes-Benz
3rd
2nd
Aldi
BMW
4th
3rd
Lidl
Oxford University
5th
4th
Ryanair
Cambridge University
6th
5th
6th
5th
7th
7th
7th
NEW
8th
4th
9th
8th
10th
9th
Audi
giffgaff
Apple
8th
10th
EasyJet
British Airways
9th
6th
Youtube
John Lewis
Waitrose
10th
8th
Facebook
©Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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Green-ness
Whilst the list of least green brands is never a surprise – populated by oil companies, airlines and car
manufacturers – the list of most green brands may be more unexpected. Supermarket Waitrose has
jumped an impressive twelve places to enter this year’s top ten, but it still ranks behind Google and
Amazon, showing that many consumers believe online businesses to be inherently green.
Least Green Brands
Most Green Brands
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
Ryanair
1st
1st
5th
EasyJet
2nd
2nd
3rd
2nd
BP
3rd
3rd
Help for Heroes
4th
4th
British Airways
4th
4th
Unicef
5th
6th
Shell
5th
5th
Cancer Research
6th
3rd
Virgin Atlantic
6th
7th
Marks & Spencer
7th
11th
Jaguar
7th
NEW
Google
8th
7th
Castrol
8th
6th
Amazon
9th
8th
Mercedes-Benz
9th
8th
Waitrose
10th
22nd
Renault
10th
14th
2012
Rank
2011
Rank
Royal Society for
Protection of Birds
1st
1st
Body Shop
2nd
Oxfam
© Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
10
Sentiment
Apple retains its crown as the brand that overall attracts the most positive sentiment from UK
consumers, but it may need to watch it’s back as Amazon has leap-frogged BMW, Mercedes-Benz
and Google to sit in third place in this year’s ranking. It has also been a good year for British retailers,
with both Marks and Spencer and John Lewis breaking into the top ten.
Least Positive Sentiment
Most Positive Sentiment
2012 2011
Rank Rank
© Decision Technology 2012
2012 2011
Rank Rank
1st
1st
1st
3rd
2nd
2nd
2nd
1st
3rd
6th
3rd
2nd
4th
4th
4th
5th
5th
3rd
5th
6th
6th
5th
6th
4th
7th
11th
7th
10th
8th
9th
8th
NEW
9th
NEW
9th
14th
10th
13th
10th
12th
Brand Personality 2011
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Industry Personalities
Every brand is different and large extremes of
personality difference can exist within a single
industry. For example, British Airways is one
of the UK’s most prestigious brands whilst
budget competitors Ryanair and easyJet are
amongst the least prestigious.
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, whilst
Charities are honest and green. Car Makers
are not at all green, but compensate by often
being quite prestigious. Political parties are
least positively perceived, primarily because
they tend to be seen as dishonest and not
very innovative.
Industry Personalities in 2012
Sentiment
Honesty
Innovation
Power
Prestige
Green
Technology
Charities
Car Makers
FMCG
Institutions
Online
Supermarkets
Retailers
Media
Brewers
Airlines
Telecoms
Oil & Gas
Banks
Insurers
Utilities
Politics
© Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2012
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About Decision Technology
Founded in 2002, Decision Technology is a research consultancy dedicated to
the study of human decision-making and the development of any associated
practical and commercial applications.
We apply extensive knowledge of academic research to approach business
issues with the best ideas and evidence available. We use rigorous techniques,
inspired by psychological science, to assess consumer data in new ways. This
means our insights are more robust and more representative of real life than
those of traditional market research, enabling us to better inform and improve
business practice.
For further information please see our website at www.dectech.co.uk
© Decision Technology 2012
Brand Personality 2011
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