Online Leading Brands 2009

Leading Brands by Romanian Internet Users 2009 Research on Romanian Internet users gemiusAdHoc Catalin Emilian Operations Manager Gemius Research February 2009

Research method The data was gathered from 26 th January till 7 th February 2009. Partners: eJobs.ro , Hot N ews .ro , Rol.ro, and wall-street.ro The final sample - 2769 questionnaires completed by Romanian internet users aged 18-45 . The structural data - Omnibus study provided by Mercury Research.

The aim of the research

Indication of the changes in the perception of characteristics defining a leading brand and online presence.

Indication of the leading brands and online presence of brands in various categories as perceived by the Romanian Internet users;

Insight in the influence of online presence of brands from 6 product categories on the their position in the ranking.

Leading brands index - was created on the basis of the most important features of ‘leading brands’ that respondents were asked to indicate at the very beginning of the questionnaire. - the index values range between 0 and 1 Base: all respondents ( 2009 N=2769 ; 2008 N=2092)

A comparison with the results of the last years’ study shows that the importance of particular characteristics determining the leading brand has changed significantly. Quality became even more influential, whereas trustworthiness, prestige and popularity have lost slightly its importance.

Source: gemiusAdHoc, February 2009, February 2008

Online presence index - was created on the features that are to the greatest extent the evidence of brand’s online presence according to respondents - the index values range between 0 and 1

In terms of values which characterize online brand's presence declared year ago - respondents in this year significantly less often declare importance of brand having its own web site. However, the value of sending newsletters to Internet users has increased.

Base: all respondents ( 2009 N=2769 ; 2008 N=2092) Source: gemiusAdHoc, February 2009, February 2008

Unaided awareness – banks and insurance (top 10) Which brands do you know (or at least have heard of) as far as banks and insurance are concerned? ‘ Tiriac’ was indicated by many respondents as a separate brand (as it is presented on the chart) although such a brand does not exist. Based on the study it is impossible to define what particular brand (e.g. Allianz-Tiriac or Unicredit-Tiriac) respondents had in mind while indicating ‘Tiriac’.

Banks and insurance brands are easily recalled by respondent and thus appear to be the most „branded” of the analysed categories.

Undeniable leaders in spontaneous awareness of the respondents are ING and BCR followed by BRD.

Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed ( N=435) Source: gemiusAdHoc, February 2009

Aided awareness – banks and insurance Which brands do you know (or at least have heard of) as far as banks and insurance are concerned? Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N=435)

BCR, BRD and ING seem to be also leaders in terms of aided awareness. Differences between these three brands in are not statistically significant.

Worth mentioning is high prompted awareness (over 70%) of almost all analysed institutions belonging to banks and insurance category, except for Aviva and RBS which seem to be visibly less recognizable trademarks.

Source: gemiusAdHoc, February 2009

Banks and insurance – Leading Brands Index

In the Leading Brands Index calculated for banks and insurance companies one institution – ING – took the first position.

The three leaders indicated in the spontaneous and prompted awareness also in the leading brands ranking took top three places.

Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N=435) Source: gemiusAdHoc, February 2009

Banks and insurance – Online Presence Index

ING, BRD and BCR are perceived as a trademarks best fitting to the attributes of a brand most present online.

The fourth brand with the features most similar to the declared by the respondents as a characteristic for a brand present on the internet is Raiffeisen.

Unaided awareness – Top 10 personal care Which brands do you know (or at least have heard of) as far as personal care/cosmetics are concerned? Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N=4 49 )

Nivea in spontaneous awareness of respondents is the best known brand among the category of personal care products.

Trade names Avon and L‘ O real were identified spontaneously by more than one in four respondents.

Aided awareness – personal care/cosmetics Which brands do you know (or at least have heard of) as far as personal care/cosmetics are concerned ?

Differences in top six brands in aided awareness are not relevant statistically. All of them were similarly frequently indicated as known trademarks.

Brand which in comparison to spontaneous awareness acquired very good result in prompted awareness is Gillette.

Personal care/cosmetics – Leading Brands Index

Matching brands to the attributes declared as the most important features of a leading brand showed that the best results in the category of personal care / cosmetics g o t four brands: Vichy, Dove, L’Oreal and Gillette

Avon - b rand declared as one of the best known in the unaided and aided awareness: got result smaller than 0,25 index points.

Personal care/cosmetics – Online Presence Index

Taking into account the best brands in terms of matching to the characteristics of a brand present on the internet, Avon takes first place.

Good results in the ranking obtained Oriflame, L’Oreal and Nivea - brands which along with Avon have highest unaided awareness among internet users in this category.

Unaided awareness – IT (top 10) Which brands do you know (or at least have heard of) as far as IT is concerned? In response to the question 6 % of respondents indicated Google and 8 % - Yahoo. Since they are not IT brands, their results are not included in this ranking. Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N=485)

Almost one out of four respondents asked about the IT category brands listed „Microsoft”. That makes this brand a leader in the category of IT in terms of spontaneous awareness.

Internet users enumerated often also HP and Apple as a known in this category.

Aided awareness – IT Which of the IT brands given below do you know (or at least have heard of)?

Two best known IT brands in aided awareness are Microsoft and Windows. That makes the Microsoft best known IT trade name (both in the spontaneous and prompted awareness).

However, four following trademarks get very similar results in terms of aided awareness: Sony, IBM, Intel and HP. Differences between those brands are not statistically significant.

Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N=485) Source: gemiusAdHoc, February 2009 Brands Windows and Microsoft were shown separately because of high number of responses „Windows” in spontaneous awareness in the last year study.

IT – Leading Brands Index

In the category of IT brands, there is clear leader in terms of matching the characteristics of a leading brand indicated by all respondents – it is Microsoft.

Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N=485) Source: gemiusAdHoc, February 2009 Brands Windows and Microsoft were shown separately because of high number of responses „Windows” in spontaneous awareness in the last year study.

IT – Online Presence Index

In the IT category best corresponding trademark with the characteristics of the brand present on internet is also Microsoft along with its brand Windows .

High position in the ranking of Online Presence Index among IT brands gained Sony and HP.

Unaided awareness – cars (top 10) Which brands do you know (or at least have heard of) as far as cars are concerned? Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N=4 63 )

The three best known trade names among Romanian internet users in the category of cars are Mercedes Benz, Dacia and BMW.

Also marque Audi has been listed often by respondents, receiving slightly less indications than the top three brands.

Aided awareness – cars Which of the car brands given below do you know (or at least have heard of)?

Awareness of car brands is very high among Romanian internet users. Since 13 out of 18 presented brands were recognized by at least 90% of respondents, it is difficult to indicate a clear leader or a group of leaders.

Cars – Leading Brands Index

Taking into account brands best fitting to the characteristics of the leading brand declared by respondents - BMW is a leader in the category of cars.

Cars – Online Presence Index

BMW is on top in the online presence index. In addition to good recognition of that brand and the features that make it a leading brand in respondents perception it is also the brand that is perceived as well present on the i nternet.

Unaided awareness – telecommunications Which brands do you know (or at least have heard of) as far as telecommunications is concerned? In response to the question respondents indicated Nokia 10% , Sony Ericsson 4%,Samsung at 3%, Motorola 1,7%,Alcatel 0,9%, Siemens 0,8% and LG 0,8%. Since they are not telecommunication brands, their results are not included in this ranking. Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N= 486 ) Source: gemiusAdHoc, February 2009

Telecommunication is a brand category (among those tested in this study) where are two most accessible in the minds of the respondents brands.

Orange and Vodafone are the best known brands in terms of the spontaneous awareness of Romanian internet users.

In the same time this brand category is rather narrow. We can talk about five most known brands, while the rest of them obtained results less than 5%.

Aided awareness – telecommunications Which of the telecommunications brands given below do you know (or at least have heard of)?

Apart from the leaders in both spontaneous and aided awareness: Orange and Vodafone - high results of indications in prompted awareness received Romtelecom, Cosmote and RDS-RCS.

Telecommunications – Leading Brands Index

Brands with highest results in the leading brands index in the category of telecommunications are Vodafone and Orange. Those are also brands which were most often spontaneously listed by respondents in this category .

Telecommunications – Online Presence Index

Vodafone and Orange are also brands perceived as the best fitting to the characteristics identified as important for the brand present online.

Cosmote is well known and recognizable brand in the category of telecommunications – and it is also brand which is perceived as having important features for online brands.

Unaided awareness –electronic products (top 10) Which brands do you know (or at least have heard of) as far as electronic products are concerned? Base: respondents, to whom the question was randomly displayed (N=432)

Most often indicated in category of unaided brand awareness is Sony. As for other brands Samsung and Philips complete the top three of brands of electronic products.

Aided awareness – electronic products Which of the electronic product brands given below do you know (or at least have heard of)?

Electronic products category in terms of aided awareness do not have clear leaders.

Sony is both, the most well-known brand and the most recognizable brand name (indicated as one of the most recognizable).

Samsung and Philips are indicated as well known in terms of spontaneous awareness and are also well recognizable.

Electronic products – Leading Brands Index

Nokia is not only well recognized brand (aided awareness) but also, it is regarded as the best fitting to the characteristics declared by the respondents as important for a leading brand.

Electronic products – Online Presence Index

In addition to best fitting to the characteristics of a leading brand, Nokia is the clear leader in terms of online presence index. Those findings and high result in aided awareness makes that brand very important in category of electronic products.

Sony and Samsung (the first and the second best known brands in terms of spontaneous awareness) have also good results in this index.

Correlations between brand ’ s position in the ranking and the brand presence on the internet Base: all respondents (N=2769)

To investigate whether the brand online presence influences the brand position in the ranking in a given product category, correlations for each product category were calculated.

The higher is the correlation for a given category, the more online presence is important to a brand position in the ranking in this category. Based on the correlations it can be seen that online presence strongly influences brands position in the rankings for IT products, and Cars. For the rest of categories the correlation is moderate.

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