Cherryflava

Sunday Times / Markinor Top SA brands – questionable

Posted on 28. Aug, 2006 by Cassandra in Design

So Sunday morning, we rise at the crack of dawn, scamper in eager anticipation down to the corner news agent to get a copy of this year’s Sunday Times / Markinor Top Brands supplement.

We sprint back home to indulge in a morning scone, a steaming hot cup of Lavazza and all the brand survey results – only to find no supplement and a tiny editorial indicating that the thing will only be published NEXT WEEK.

Reason?

The annual Top Brands Survey, due to be published in The Sunday Times
this weekend as a 40-page showcase tabloid insert, was withdrawn on
Friday, 25 August 2006, after Vodacom took legal action against MTN
over the parodying of the Vodacom slogan in an MTN ad in the main body
of the tabloid. MTN will now reportedly be footing the bill for the
reprint of the special supplement – to the tune of R2.5 million. [via]

Thanks MTN for ruining our Sunday – you owe us R9.50.

Fortunately, there’s always news online….

So – top brand in SA; for like the 100th year in a row, is not surprisingly: Coca Cola (20.7%).

It would have been big news had the biggest brand in the world not taken home first place, but just goes to prove that no amount of ad spend will take away from grassroots community involvement when it comes to building a brand in Africa.

Overall Runners up: Vodacom at 6.0%, Nike at 4.4%,
SAB Ltd at 4.3%, Toyota at 3.6%, Castle at 3.3%, Clover at 3.3%, Nokia
at 3.2%, Eskom at 3.1% and Shoprite at 2.9%.

Eskom? No such thing as bad press we always say.

—
Favourite brand ads: Top five scores: Vodacom 12.6%, Coca-Cola 4.9%, Joko 4.2%, MTN 1.8% and Omo 1.8%.

That skinned cat really is working out for Vodacom.

—

Here’s proof that this survey is fundamentally inaccurate:

In the top BUSINESS MEDIA BRAND category: M-Net heads up the electronic business media category, followed by SABC (9.3%), Highveld Stereo 94.7 (4.8%), e.tv (4%) and DSTV (3.5%).
That sound right – M-Net, first for your breaking business news. What a joke.

—

Top banks: Absa 41.3%, Standard Bank 39.7%, FNB/First
National Bank 32.7%, Nedbank 11.5%, People’s Bank 2.7%, Ithala 2.6%,
African Bank 2%, Teba Bank 1.1%, NBS 0.9%, Perm 0.9%.

Even though NBS and Perm have not been in existance for some time now – they still appear to have loyal clients. Go figure that one out.

—

Coolest brands: Nike 19.2%, Coca-Cola 17%, Levi’s 13.3%, Adidas 10.8%, Vodacom 8%, Nokia 7.5%, Puma 5.2%, MTN 4.7% LG 4%, Billabong 3.9%.

Cool in SA still means big brand personality created by big ad budgets. No car brands in the list.

—

Finally, respondents were asked which brands or
products that are no longer available, they miss the most. This
resulted in a diverse range of answers (over 500), with the top three
being:

Recently relaunched – Pepsi (its back to the drawing board for you lot after that cold slap in the face), Lion Lager and Mellow Yellow.

Other interesting mentions
were: good service at hospitals, good police service, LP records, milk
delivery to houses, municipal services, VW Kombis, creamy toffee bar,
gramophones, Baywatch and Springbok Radio.

—

As far as the winners go, clearly there are huge problems. And our opinion is that its a bit of shame that they’ve labeled this as an official guide to the biggest SA brands, when many of the top results are inaccurate.
Perhaps what can be learnt from this is that traditional advertising, brand building and media are still very much in control of the SA brand environment. Big budget brands, pumping loads into sport sponsorship, community involvement and ads on SABC 1 are still going to reap the exposure awards with the majority of the urban and rural population….even years after you close shop.

More – Biz-community