Top Brands Of 2009

This time last year, experts were predicting that 2009 would see brands facing the toughest tests of their lives. And they weren?t really off the mark. The year just gone by was, indeed, one of the most challenging years for brands. For alongside battling the economic downturn, they had to deal with a grumpy and even more demanding consumer.

At the beginning of 2009, the brand pundits? prognosis was that the deepening financial crisis will squeeze marketing budgets and consumer spends will fall to a new low. As a result consumers will resort to downtrading, or buying cheaper brands in place of their favourite brands, and therefore, brand loyalties will be put to test. They said many brands will fall by the wayside, with only a few surviving to tell the tale. Brand managers will have to choose between going for discounts and promotions, thus, cheapening their brands or use the opportunity to build brand equity and outlast the competition.

And need we say that all this and lot more came true in the year we just said goodbye to! In this edition of Brandwagon, we identify the few winners and survivors of 2009. To spot them, we partnered with the market research agency Synovate India, which spoke with a cross-section of mid and top level advertising professionals and marketing heads of leading companies across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore and arrived at a list of best brands.

The Brandwagon-Synovate Best Brands Survey 2009 shows that many brands not only managed to survive the storm, they even prospered the difficult times, thanks to their relentless chase of the consumer through out-of-box branding strategies. The survey, which rated brands in terms of quality, imagery, delivering brand promise and consumer engagement, found telecom services provider Airtel coming up tops, followed by the banking and financial services group ICICI, consumer products maker Hindustan Unilever, and consumer electronics players LG and Sony.

Other names in the best brands? list include consumer products maker Parle, telecom services provider Reliance Communications, HDFC Bank, automobiles maker Toyota and telecom services provider Vodafone.

A quick study of these top brands shows that most of them preferred to focus on the mother brand. This was especially the case with Hindustan Unilever, LG and Sony, which increasingly ran umbrella campaigns across media platforms to communicate the primary brand proposition, along with advertisements on individual product. So, this year, we saw Hindustan Unilever flash its logo in most of its marketing communication initiatives even as ads on individual variants continued to be aired. The same was the case with LG, where its recent festive campaign featured all its consumer electronics products under the umbrella tagline: Life?s good.

In the case of Airtel, which started off as a mobile service provider brand, it used the goodwill and brand equity created through one business to morph into a mother brand which helped propel new ventures such as broadband and direct-to-home television service.

Within the mobile service provider sphere, almost all the brands managed to make a mark. Besides Airtel at No. 1, both Vodafone and Reliance Communications found place among the 10 best brands.

Brand Vodafone, built on its past successes with the pug series to launch the Zoozoos campaign, which attained a cult status among Indian consumers. Co-branding initiatives such as sponsoring reality shows on television such as Bigg Boss 3 have also helped this brand remain in the limelight and ensure higher brand recall.

Surprisingly, big banks fared well too. ICICI – the umbrella brand for banking, insurance and other financial services?at No. 2, shows that its flagship company ICICI Bank has been able to bury the ghosts of the past when rumours about its credibility threatened to erode its brand equity. Looks like Shah Rukh Khan?s ?trust? campaign for ICICI Bank did work.

HDFC Bank and HSBC both figure on our 10 best brands list. Consumer goods companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Parle and Dabur emerged as stronger brands because unlike rivals, these companies continued to invest in the marketing communications and brand building initiatives to keep the connect with consumers intact. Their brands were able to react quickly to the changed consumer preferences in the wake of the economic downturn; they came out with cheaper variants of their products, smaller sized packs, even as they retained key traits such as quality, thus keeping the brand promise of more for less.

The consumer electronics sector is generally the first victim in difficult times, as consumers defer discretionary purchases. However, both LG Electronics and Sony managed to hold their own this year, indicating the resilience of these brands. Even brand such as Panasonic and Sony Ericsson managed to make a comeback last year.

The Tata brand, which encompasses products as diverse as tea to cars, is also among the 10 best brands of 2009. The successful launch of Tata Nano added to the brand equity of the mother brand even as Tata Tea?s ?Jaago Re? campaign helped it directly engage with consumers and not to mention the buzz created by Tata Docomo.

Surprisingly, despite a good year in terms of sales, auto brands put up a disappointing show in terms of top of mind recall among their target audience.

Toyota, with its hybrid car Prius, captured the imagination of consumers, managing to find berth among the top 10 brands. The only other auto brand in the top 10 was Volkswagen, which made its entry in India towards the end of the year and announced it through roadblocks across top dailies as well as corporate campaigns on television.

Hero Honda, the motorcycle brand celebrating its 25th anniversary with the ?Desh Ki Dhadkan? campaign, has also found place among the 10 best brands.

The survey also looked at the most visible brands of 2009 . These were the brands that advertised extensively, continuously engaged with its audiences through communication and market activity and were written about in business publications. In this category.

The survey also spotted the brands with a consumer-friendly face. The brands that were able to engage with consumers in a constructive way and were also seen as being sensitive to consumers? needs were the winners in this category.

Tata Docomo, Airtel, Vodafone were some of the most visible and consumer friendly brands of the year.