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Having consumers discuss their brands is a marketer’s ultimate high. Consumers have so many other interesting things to discuss, though, so why would they talk about brands?
There is a small clutch of brands, however, which are so exciting that consumers can’t get enough of them. These are the brands with buzz – brands which gain a special magical power that comes from figuring constantly in the conversation of consumers.
With the latest edition of The Buzziest Brands of the Year Poll 2009 - Sponsored by Fly Kingfisher - afaqs! has been trying to put its finger on this phenomenon for four consecutive years. It has done this by identifying brands that are most searched for by surfers on afaqs! – that is, by people whose business is brands. This becomes the basis for a surfers’ poll (with built-in safeguards) and, since last year, a jury of well-known professionals as well, who get equal weightage as the surfers. We believe that this creates an exciting list of brands which are the same – and yet different every year. (Click here to view the top 50 Buzziest Brands of 2009.)
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BUZZY GOLD
AIRTEL
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For the fourth year in a row, this Delhi-based telecom brand continues to be at the top of the heap as the brand that generated the most buzz in India. An interesting aspect of the Airtel story is that for every year since 2006, it has had a different, powerful brand at No 2 lunging to overtake it: from Hutch to Nokia to Kingfisher and, this year, it had to contend with Facebook. It’s been an amazing performance and in the popular or surfer vote, Airtel received about 30 per cent more votes than the runner up, Idea. Airtel truly proves that buzz is a byproduct of doing a whole lot of things in an exciting way. Three of the six judges voted for the brand. The percentage of voters who supported Airtel: 46.7 per cent.
BUZZY SILVER
FACEBOOK
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This first-time entrant, with 150 million members worldwide, is clearly a darling in India as well where its followers number four million. In the popular vote, Facebook got just over half of the votes as did the leader and came in at No 6. However, fortune smiled on Facebook in the form of the jury’s favour: four of the six jury members voted for the brand, higher than for any other brand. The jury was presumably impressed with not just the networking idea but the fact that virtually anyone who is anyone – the young as well as the established – now features on the site. It was unlucky not to have unseated Airtel with a voter percentage at 45.5% which is only a tiny fraction lower.
BUZZY BRONZE
GOOGLE
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In the popular vote, Google moved up one rank from No 9 last year. On an overall basis, it moved north by three ranks, up from No 6 last year. This was on the back of the judges’ favour: the brand received a total of three votes which pitchforked it to third place from the No 8 position that the popular vote had assigned it. Google has become so much a part of our lives that we may be collectively more comfortable but a little less in awe than in the past. All the same, if the search engine continues to innovate in the way that it has until now, it will continue to figure in the higher echelons of the buzzy list. In terms of voter percentage, Google is way behind Facebook at 35.5 per cent.
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THE BUZZY 10 (OR THE NEXT 10)
IDEA
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With a voter percentage of 33.0, which is almost identical to last year (34.1), Idea also ends up at the same position, No 4. The big difference is that last year Idea came No 7 in the popular vote, whereas this year, it did dramatically better, coming in at No 2 after Airtel - even if a distant No 2. Last year, the jury’s votes had boosted Idea’s ranking; this year, it managed only two votes, which pulled its overall position down to No 4. In Idea’s case it seems like a fair guess that the brand’s advertising (‘What an idea, sirjee!’) has contributed more to the buzz than any other aspect of the brand.
NOKIA
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This is one brand whose power never wanes: in each of the last four years it has managed to stay among the top five brands – the only one apart from Airtel to have been so consistently buzzy with the voters. Its magic factories which turn out one stunning model after another are the heart of the buzz. The only time a rival mobile set marketer came really close was in 2007 when, following a fresh surge of models and sales, Motorola shot up to No 4 (it has since crashed to No 33). Two judges voted for Nokia this year, helping it to get to a voter percentage of 31.5, slightly lower than last year.
TATA
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This is one brand that doesn’t quite fit into this list. It represents a corporate house more associated with heavy infrastructure than sexy consumer products. All the same, it broke into the buzzy top league of brands at eighth place last year, presumably on the back of news and excitement about the Nano. The anticipation about the cutest little car in the world continues. ‘Tata’ was also indirectly in the news because of the Mumbai terror attacks. On the voter front, though, its ranking has dropped from No 5 last year to No 14. It was three jury votes that have swept the brand to its highest level so far, No 6, with a voter percentage of 30.5.
VODAFONE
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This is Vodafone’s first appearance on this list. Its old avatar, Hutch, was rated as hugely buzzy (No 2, No 3) in 2006 and 2007. Last year, neither Hutch nor Vodafone figured – one had exited and the other wasn’t hot in the search list. The brand has done really well with surfers, garnering a voter score of 32.3 per cent to take the third place, behind Airtel and Idea, making it a troika of exciting telecom service brands. However, the jury seems to have had its reservations about Vodafone’s buzziness: only one of the six judges opted for this brand, which pulled its voter percentage down to 24.5 per cent and its rank to No 7.
THE TOP 60 SHORTLIST |
Based on over 2 million searches carried out on afaqs! in 2008, a shortlist of the 55 most searched for brands was made. To these were added five brands: 1. Two brands – Happydent and The Times of India – did not figure in the 55 most searched brands but were included because they were in the Top 10 list in 2008. 2. Surfers are unlikely to search for the really big digital brands on afaqs! So they’d never figure in the list of buzzies. That is why an afaqs! editorial committee voted on shortlisting three digital brands which ought to be included in the poll. After much deliberation, the committee came up with Facebook, Google and Yahoo! from a long list of contenders. |
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THE TIMES OF INDIA
This is the only traditional media brand to have consistently featured in the top 10 buzzy brands for four years in a row, a remarkable achievement considering that among the top performers the bulk of the brands have some tech component which makes them attractive. The newspaper brand slips one rank lower this time round. On the surfer vote, though, it moves up from No 13 last year up to No 9 – the ayes of two jury members help it move one step even higher, to No 8. The company’s ability to create excitement around a 171-year-old print brand is something both voters and jury members seem to appreciate in ample measure. Voter percentage: 24.4 per cent.
TAJ GROUP OF HOTELS
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There has never been a brand such as this to appear in the Buzziest Brands of the Year Poll. The hotel is here because of the massacre of innocents and the TV drama that followed on November 26 last year. The advertising and media crowd found the whole thing especially real because at least two well-known names from the community were killed, one at the Taj and the other at the Oberoi. The old Taj is no longer just a hotel, it is a national monument. Voter percentage: 23.9.
HOW THE POLLING WAS DONE |
Visitors to the afaqs! website were asked to choose any five brands from the shortlist of 60 that they felt had the greatest buzz – defined as brands that consumers talk about – in the year gone by. To ensure that there is no digital ballot-stuffing, voters had to click on a link sent to their email account. In all 1,577 voters participated in the poll and 1,230 of them validated their link. The poll was carried out online from January 28 to February 9, 2009. To create balance and gain a potentially different perspective, half a dozen well-known names from advertising, allied disciplines, media and marketing were asked to cast their votes for their five favourite brands from the shortlist. The jury’s vote had the same weightage as the surfers. In other words, the surfer: jury weightage was 50:50. |
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KINGFISHER
This is one of the four brands – apart from Airtel, Nokia and The Times of India – which have been a fixture among the top 10 names. Its refreshing attitude towards aviation coupled with its takeover of Air Deccan sent it shooting up to No 2 last year (after doing No 6 and No 7 in 2006 and 2007). This year it has dropped marginally to No 5 in the popular surfer vote. Its final placement was affected because only one jury member opted for it, compared to four last year. Kingfisher’s voter percentage at the end of it all was 22.5, significantly lower than the score last year.
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RELIANCE
This is one brand whose buzz quotient leapt dramatically in spite of many controversies, taking its rank rising from No 13 in 2006 to No 3 in 2008. >This year it has descended to No 11 – and even that is in large measure because two jury members supported the brand. Left to popular vote, Reliance would have ended up at No 19. To be fair, this is the first time that Reliance Mobile (No 27) has been listed separately from Reliance – a name that stands for two industrial groups, both enormous – because of the high number of searches for both. This has likely led to a split in the vote and a fall in the rank. Voter percentage: 20.5.
ICICI
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Another brand that stayed in the Top 10 from 2006 to 2008 – but this year it has been pushed out just a bit, to No 12. Considering that ICICI received a lot of negative mileage as the bank meltdown drama unfolded in the US, making top headlines in all media as a shaky entity, it is a marvel that ICICI has ranked as high as it has. It has received one jury vote, taking it to a voter percentage of 15.7 per cent, about the same as last year. The brand has such tremendous resilience that, in spite of everything, the buzz around it hasn’t diminished.
LIC & HDFC
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LIC has never entered even the shortlist of 60 brands. The reason for its landing here this year is presumably the heavy dose of advertising it injected into the brand – which seems to have got it some attention within the ad community. HDFC, in sharp contrast, has featured in every annual poll since the start of the buzzies in 2006, ranking between No 22 and No 34 in the past. Voters placed LIC at No 22, together with HDFC, but a single jury vote – in each case – catapulted them 10 places higher, making it a tie in their current position.
(The Buzziest Brands of the year poll 2009 was sponsored by Fly Kingfisher. The detailed report of the poll can be read in the latest issue of The Brand Reporter.)
© 2010 afaqs!From Sanjeev, Sun 22 Mar 2009 02:58:18 PM What is the position of Virgin mobile in india
From Meverick, Sun 22 Feb 2009 12:38:12 AM It appears you forgot listing Brand Satyam in your study. Whether for bad or good reasons, this brand has generated more buzz in last 4 months that the top 5 would have ci=ummulatively generated in a year!
From Karan, Sat 21 Feb 2009 11:34:19 AM Airtel has always been unique in its marketing strategy. It innovated the model of separating the backend activities like billing, infrastructure from its core sales and marketing function to get so far ahead.
From young guns, Thu 19 Feb 2009 11:12:15 AM One brand that's missing in top 10 is Vrgin mobile. The brand did have a momerable advertising last year which included television, outdoor, activation. I wonder why? Probably if the poll was open to young consumers, tthe brand would be higher up...
