COVID-19 has had an unprecedented effect on the UK healthcare system, placing a great strain on the public healthcare system. There has been a vast reduction in many procedures carried out by the NHS, and an increase in wait lists that may take years to return to normal levels. Many consumers who may not previously have used private healthcare are considering the use of self-pay healthcare, as they seek alternatives to NHS wait lists.

During the past five months, we have been tracking the UK’s perception of brands across various sectors to uncover their performance on trust and likeability, and their overall response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

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.

When it comes to consumer trust, the Banking sector is the most stable among the four, at 25% since August and showing a decrease of 3% since May. We have also observed that in the banking sector trust has increased 2% from 31% to 33%.

The telecommunication sector has shown the worst decrease in trust from 32% to 29%. However, following the trend observed it has increased by 1% in the last month. This might be because many companies are not returning to work in offices in the foreseeable future and working from home is fuelling a surge in sign-ups for the UK’s ultrafast broadband.

Delving deeper into the banking industry, we asked UK consumers which banks they like. The overall decreasing sentiment towards banks may be a result of the current recession and the drop in interest rates banks can offer at this time.

The trend in retail differs slightly from other sectors, such as telecommunications, as we observed a steady decline from the beginning of April to 6th June. In April, McKinsey predicted that 80% of retail stores would be in financial distress if they remained shut for a further two months.

We have been tracking the UK’s perception of brands across the Telecoms sector. From the beginning of April, when we started to track brand reputation, there has been an overall, steady decline in the number of people who believe the sector has responded well to Coronavirus.

When we began tracking trust, the majority of UK consumers had faith in the grocery sector (58%) with sales rising by £500m as Brits adjusted their shopping habits to their lockdown lifestyle. But this trust has since eroded by 16%. After wearing masks became mandatory, shoppers made fewer trips to the grocery store.

During the past five months, we have tracked the UK’s perception of brands across various sectors to uncover their performance on trust and likeability, and their overall response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Our aim is to understand which brands are coming top in each sector across these factors and predict their future performance based on consumer behaviour.