Page 11 - BOSS Today Issue 15

■ the quality of the product differentiation factor BIC dropped distance behind. In fact, a not strength of the winners and
or service to third from second, swapping insignificant quarter of the the marketing centric approach
■ their reliability as measured by positions with Sellotape. overall top 20 is represented by of the brand owners. It is also
consumer trust If we were to remove the technology brands. testament to their investment
■ how consumers felt each four category splits, the office Second place in the in building and maintaining
brand was differentiated in stationery segment would technology category is Canon great brands, through both
comparison to its peers dominate the overall top 20. Of and in third, current brand product innovation and
the 20 leading brands, 12 would darling of the tech sector, exceptional marketing activities.
These three factors, while not be traditional office product Apple. Fourth-placed brand is Particular recognition should be
exhaustive, are essential in - Post-it, BIC, Sellotape, Avery, Epson, with Dell sitting in fifth bestowed on the four category
creating brand equity. Black ‘n’ Red, Tipp-Ex, 5 Star, Pritt, spot. Brother and Samsung winners - Post-It, PG Tips, HP
The following rankings are Conqueror, Stabilo, Collins and just missed out on a top five and Bisley - for outperforming
based on combining all three Scotch. The first six are in the placing, ranking sixth and their peers. In a crowded
factors equally. overall top ten. seventh respectively. BT, Xerox market, standing above the
and Ricoh close out the top ten. competition in reputational
Traditional office products Facilities management The top three brands remain terms makes these business
We asked consumers to rate Unsurprisingly, the brands in this consistent across the three true champions. It will be telling
just under 120 office products. category are household names criteria, with the exception of whether they can remain on
The results were clear: the gulf with considerable marketing trust, where Epson edged out top in next year’s survey.
between the strongest and support in the consumer Apple for third place.
lesser brands was considerable. market as well as the business The research
The dominating brands all enjoy to business market. Topping the Furniture The fieldwork was undertaken
considerable heritage, high list is Unilever-owned PG Tips, A tighter collection of 13 by the telemarketing division
awareness and widespread followed closely by Nescafé in office furniture brands were of The Business Performance
use - within both business and second, with P&G-owned Fairy in considered in the survey. Group (sponsored by VOW),
non-business markets. There is third place. Tetley came in fourth, Bisley topped by a significant using a process developed by
no doubt that those brands used three places below its arch rival, margin. In fact, the steel storage The Centre for Brand Analysis.
in the majority of homes have followed by Kimberly-Clark’s brand scored nearly four times The research was carried out in
an advantage over their pure Andrex brand. As with the office the points of second-placed the first part of October 2012.
business to business peers. stationery sector, placing remains Floortex. Securing third place In total 217 individuals took
Taking third place in this sector consistent across the different was Germania, ahead by just part in the survey, an even
was Sellotape, a brand born in criteria, with the top three brands one point from fourth-placed balance of men, and women
London in 1937. As the company easily securing their positions Empirial. As with the three from across Great Britain. 83
states, the brand is an assurance across all three factors. In total 54 categories already examined, per cent of those taking part
of superior standards. Sellotape’s brands were considered in this the top three furniture brands in the research were from
ubiquity sees the brand name category. are consistently dominant. the commercial sector, 2 per
often used generically to Disregarding the category They represent the top three in cent were from government
describe the product type. splits, only the top three facilities quality, trust and distinction. For departments, 7 per cent worked
BIC, in second place, is equally management brands - PG Tips, trust and distinction however, in the education sector and 8
ubiquitous, as is first-placed Post- Nescafé and Fairy - would make there was no difference per cent were from retail. All
it, another brand name often the overall top 20 list. between Germania and Empirial, respondents were responsible
used incorrectly to describe the so Empirial only lost third spot for purchasing within their
generic product type. In fourth Technology because of a marginally lower organisation.
and fifth respectively are Avery From the 59 technology brands score on quality.
and Black ‘n’ Red. assessed, global giant HP topped Stephen Cheliotis is chief
If we break down the results by the rankings in this category. HP Conclusion executive of the Centre for
factor we reveal a fairly consistent also leads the overall list, with The Brand of the Year award is Brand Analysis.
order. Against the quality metric second-placed Post-it some a reflection of the reputational
the top four remain the same,
however Tipp-Ex pushed out “The Brand of the Year award is a refl ection of the
Black ‘n’ Red to secure fifth. A
similar pattern is seen with the reputational strength of the winners and the marketing
trust factor, where the leading centric approach of the brand owners. It is also
four products matched the
overall results, but sneaking into testament to their investment in building and
fifth was stationery brand 5-Star maintaining great brands, through both product
- once more Black ‘n’ Red was
pushed into sixth place. In the innovation and exceptional marketing activities.”

December 2012/January 2013 | BOSS TODAY 11

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