YouGov Founder's Blog

HOW important is buzz? To find out, we compared three sets of BrandIndex scores – “buzz”, “quality”, and “recommend” – for three leading Japanese car brands (Nissan, Toyota, Subaru).

Graph one shows the scatter for buzz against recommend, Graph two for buzz against quality. There is virtually no correlation between these brands’ buzz and recommend scores (0.05), but strong correlation between their recommend and quality scores (0.75).

This demonstrates clearly that quality drives “recommend” (the measure most often linked with purchasing behaviour) much more than buzz: when consumers are thinking about cars, it seems to be their build quality, not their gizmos, that underpins their enthusiasm for the Japanese brands.

We get the same effect for German brands (Audi, BMW, Mercedes): the correlations here are 0.35 and 0.62 respectively. Again, it suggests that the underlying brand associations built up over many years has a much stronger effect on success than the short-term excitement generated by new stories.

So what about all the buzz around the BNP’s appearance on BBC’s Question Time? The subject dominated the airwaves for the 24 hours around the event, registering as the number one theme among the Twitterati.

YouGov conducted a before-and-after poll, and the result was a surprise: we saw no significant rise in support for the BNP – a one-per cent move was well within the margin of error – and we actually registered a slight decline in the proportion who thought positively about them. There was also a huge majority agreeing with the BBC’s decision to have them on the programme, so a single short poll provided evidence that the BNP’s big appearance made no difference and that people predicted that their appearance would make no difference.

THINGS have picked up on the high street over the last month, but it’s not a case of a rising tide lifting all boats: the recession seems to have made the customer more discerning. Of the 25 high street retailers which BrandIndex measures daily, we’ve taken three of our top-ranked, and compared them with three of our bottom-ranked. The results point to an emerging polarisation between the best and worst, the top-rated seeing their scores improve still further while the lowest are seeing their scores dip.

M&S IS STILL A FAVOURITE
For example, Marks & Spencer has seen a rapid growth from around +40 points to around +50, while Phones 4 U has slumped from around -4 to -15 in the same period. The gap between good and bad brands is growing, as consumers become less willing to give the weaker ones the benefit of the doubt, but are more willing to throw their weight behind the strong ones.

STRIKES HIT ROYAL MAIL
The threat of postal strike action leading up to the Christmas period was never going to reflect well on Royal Mail’s brand. While the two sides in the dispute battle it in front of the microphones, each trying to push the blame on the other while exonerating themselves, the inevitable happens: the brand collapses.

This is not like any normal dispute, as we are all customers. When we send a letter and it fails to get delivered, the hit is personal, even emotional. Its brand strength was derived from that personal connection, and that now turns out to be its vulnerability. While Royal Mail dives, its competitors (in this case FedEx and DHL) have usurped part of its brand value, as well as its market share.