After tracking the UK’s perception of brands across various sectors to understand which brands are coming top in each sector and predict their future performance based on consumer behaviour across trust and likeability, as well as their overall response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

How Is Coronavirus Effecting Brands?

When measuring consumer opinion of whether brands have responded well to the pandemic, the grocery sector increased its score by 1%. The normalisation of price after an inflationary spike of 2.5% in the first month of lockdown (Source: IFS) and the changes in promotions, played a key role in driving this metric upward in this sector.

Source: Rare: Consulting. UK adults 18+. Data collected between 7th April and 18th October 2020 (N=8,929). Those aware of the brand: three months’ moving average centered on the reference month. Average base in Retail (N=7,861), Grocery (N=6,484), Telco (N=7,434), Banking (N=6,734).

However, when measuring consumer trust, overall the grocery has shown the worst decrease from 45% to 39%. This sector has pioneered solutions to cope with the pandemic to offer up-to-standard customer service. Now that other restrictions are in place, take-home grocery sales rose by 9.4% during the 12 weeks to 4 October 2020, (Source: Kantar), grocery stores need to be prepared for another shopping rush, to maintain the perception of a good response to Covid-19 in the perception of the consumers.

Also, we have seen likeability towards brands in this sector decrease overall. Based on current trends in the news and in our data, we expect Tesco will continue to be the most liked brand over the coming weeks.

Tesco

Although Tesco is the most liked of the brands measured, over the whole period likeability towards the brand dropped by 10%, with a further drop of 1% in the last month. The grocer has issued a warning to customers to shop earlier than usual and don’t panic buy (Source: Mirror) for Christmas approaches and during the harsher restrictions. We will see if this affects the number of customers liking Tesco in the next month.

ASDA

The amount of people reporting they like ASDA has dropped 2% from 61% to 59%, the worst decrease among the brands measured. Asda is doing a meal deal where you can get a main, side, dessert and bottle of wine for £10 (Source: The Sun), which could potentially help to increase likeability in the coming weeks.

Sainsbury’s

Likeability towards Sainsbury’s has slightly increased and it is now 2% below the May score. However, the supermarket will only allow one adult per-household to shop at one time in tier 3 zones (Source: Coventry Telegraph). Shopping at Sainsbury’s may become inaccessible or too time-consuming for some, which could have affected the grocer’s ratings if consumers will be forced to shop elsewhere.

Aldi

The number of customers reporting they liked Aldi dropped 2% between June and September. The chain has launched a new food product that is getting high praise from the store's fans (Source: Mirror), which may help to keep to them on the right track and improve likeability, as long as it is effective over time.

Morrisons

The only brand with almost stable likeability and showing signs of possible growth in the past few months is Morrisons (up 1% since July). The grocer has been praised by shoppers for selling pre-packed bags of shopping which are then donated to food banks (Source: The Sun). This will help the brand to stay on track and may increase likeability to a level not recorded before.

Three Key Insights

Further restrictions on time slots and people allowed in stores to avoid panic buying must be carefully planned, in order to avoid a negative effect on customer likeability.
New products launch and offers are the most viable way to keep the name of the brand top of mind.
Campaigning for more environmentally friendly and charitable shopping from big grocery chains is proven effective to increase likeability and change people's attitudes toward a more socially responsible way to do shopping.

Methodology

We calculated the Rolling averages, to identify long-term trends, by averaging a group of three months (e.g. April-May-June, which would be ‘May’). The number (%) obtained becomes representative of that period in a trend line. The period-based averages "roll," or "move," because when a new observation is gathered over time, the oldest is dropped out.

For more information on the data gathered, email hello@rare.consulting.

Brand Reputation Series - October Review - Issue 3 Grocery: Who’s loved and who’s loathed?