Aldi hailed UK’s favourite brand for first time
Budget supermarket chain Aldi has scooped first place in the UK’s top 10 brands as it enters the list along with rival Lidl for the first time.
According to the YouGov BrandIndex’s 2014 mid-year Buzz rankings, Aldi and Lidl’s positions in the list – the latter came in fourth place – signify a shift towards consumers valuing brands that will help them save money as the cost of living remains high.
The findings, based on 'buzz' or net sentiment generated across all media, including advertising, news and word of mouth, also saw the Money Saving Expert website push into the top 10 for the first time.
The score can range from 100 to -100 and is compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.
The supermarket sector is well represented in the top ten, with Waitrose reflecting a strong year by moving up to fifth from ninth compared to this point last year. Sainsbury’s shows resilience despite a challenging time, remaining in tenth position.
Sarah Murphy, BrandIndex director at YouGov, said: “The budget grocery stores are making deep inroads into the supermarket sector and are also shaking up the retail landscape too, with Aldi coming in ahead of established brands such as John Lewis.
"Consumers want to do their weekly shops affordably while losing nothing in terms of quality and they believe these German brands do this. The other supermarkets in the top ten may need to react and adapt to the challenge in order to maintain their place in the hearts and minds of consumers.”
Since the last mid-year rankings, Samsung has slipped from second to ninth however, its continued presence in the top ten indicates that consumers are still largely hearing positive things about the brand.
The BBC’s website and the iPlayer have both retained their places in the list (seventh and third respectively).
Findus was the most improved brand following on from its recovery after the horse meat scandal and topped the ‘improvers’ list.
