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 1 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 2 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 3 Brands Tracked in 2012 New brands added in 2012: Jaguar, giffgaff, Phones4U, Poundland, © Decision Technology 2012 Brand Personality 2012 4 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 6 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 7 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 8 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 9 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 11 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 12 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 13