Quarterly Buzz results for Q2 2024

KLA, the exclusive partner for YouGov in sub-Saharan Africa, has released the sixth edition of The Quarterly Buzz, tracking the brands with the most ‘Buzz’ in the market.

The Quarterly Buzz leverages the YouGov BrandIndex tool, a dynamic platform that consistently evaluates public sentiment of over 200 brands in South Africa across 8 categories. Through the BrandIndex tool, the top 10 performing brands across sectors are highlighted, with the top 5 brands respectively named within each category.

Employing a comprehensive framework of 16 metrics that span across the marketing funnel, the BrandIndex tools’ Buzz metric takes the spotlight. This metric evaluates consumer perception, gauging whether individuals have encountered positive or negative information about a brand in the preceding two weeks. Operating on a scale of +100 to -100, a net score is derived, offering a view of a brand’s performance relative to its competitors. These scores are accumulated over a 3-month period, forming the basis for The Quarterly Buzz results, with the latest results being measured from April 1 to June 30, 2024.

The top-performing brands across all sectors in Q2 of 2024 are:

Since the launch of The Quarterly Buzz, the food, groceries, and consumables sector has maintained a strong presence in the top 10 performing brands. The Q2 results reinforce this ongoing trend, with 5 of the top 10 brands from this sector. After experiencing notable declines in Q4 2023, and a period of market stablisation in the previous quarter, the market has shown growth over the most recent period. Two of the top 10 brands, Checkers (ranking 4th in the previous quarter) and Spar (ranking 20th in the previous quarter), have demonstrated a significant improvement in Buzz performance.

For the first time since the launch of The Quarterly Buzz, Checkers has overtaken Woolworths Food, FNB and Takealot (automotive department) — a significant achievement for the brand, which has surpassed those who have dominated the top rankings over the past year.

Checkers has demonstrated significant improvement in Buzz, and quarter-on-quarter growth across all 16 metrics in the last quarter. Woolworths Food continues to maintain a strong presence, securing 2nd place despite softening on 5 of the 16 metrics. Takealot and Woolworths clothing have marginally softened, resulting in a drop in rank to 4th and 9th place respectively. Conversely, with marginal gains in Buzz and the lost ground experienced in other brands, MrPrice Home and Clicks have risen to 5th and 6th place respectively, with the former gaining 4 rank positions from the previous quarter. This period also marks the entry of 3 new brands in the top 10: KFC and Shoprite, returning after 2 quarters, and Spar making its appearance after 9 months.

Advertising: Driving Growth and Supporting Brand Relevance

Advertising plays an undeniable role in creating brand awareness, communicating positioning, creating connection, and driving engagement among other critical needs. Understanding the channels to be used, and more so, creating a balance that is effective in optimising the mix forms the foundation of a successful marketing strategy. With increased market clutter and declining consumer mental availability, KLA wanted to understand which channels are most recalled across sectors. We spoke to a nationally representative sample of South Africa to understand which channels remain top of mind.

Source: KLA YourView Consumer Panel, Omnibus, 1 April – 30 June 2024 n=1484

TV and digital advertising (online ads and social media), are the most recalled channels across all sectors. However, there are notable differences in how these channels drive brand awareness within specific sectors. TV remains a dominant channel overall, but it is particularly influential in banking and insurance, alongside YouTube advertising. In the fast-food sector, apps are particularly important, ranking 4th highest among all sectors. In-store advertising and brand representatives enhance recall in the clothing and footwear sector, while magazines rank 4th in the home décor sector. Billboards are a prominent channel in the telecommunications and fuel/ car parts sector, while newspapers maintain a crucial role in the food and groceries sector. In driving recommendation, word of mouth plays an important role in recall in banking, insurance, fast-food and the automotive sector. Overall, effective brand recall is supported through a mix of channels that showcase consistent messaging across them.

In the latest report, specific brand’s performance reflects dynamic trends in the South African market.

Shoprite Holding: Customer Centricity Through Diversification

Shoprite Holding brands, Checkers and Shoprite, have both performed well this quarter, ranking in 1st and 8th place respectively. Checkers improved across all 16 metrics from the previous quarter, while Shoprite significantly improved on recommendation, noting growth on 12 of the 16 metrics.

Despite the challenging economic climate and resultant rise in the cost of living, Shoprite maintains a strong presence in the market, leveraging perceived price leadership, and brand expansion into other categories. These strategics shifts have driven diversification and focused on customer needs.

Checkers saw significant gains in Buzz driven by several factors. Beyond driving store footprint (for both Checkers and Uniq clothing by Checkers), the brand has driven CSI initiatives and grown its range of the Sixty60 children’s collection that encourages immersive play. The retailer also launched a beta app, offering a wider product range of over 10 000 larger products from Checkers Hyper stores, maintaining its 60-minute delivery promise, rivalling brands such as Takealot and Amazon.

Additionally, Checkers successfully launched Foodie, a new private label brand, complementing its existing labels Forage and Feast, Simple Truth and Oh My Goodness. This expansion aims to offer high-quality, convenient meals, competing against Woolworths Food who have historically dominated this market.

Checkers has strategically focused on offering variety and leveraging technology and AI, to meet diverse needs in ways that are seamless, convenient, and affordable, entrenching its positioning as customer centric. BrandIndex reinforces market perception, with both Checkers and Shoprite trending up on value for money perceptions over this period.

Source: BrandIndex, 1 April — 19 July 2024, n~506

FNB: Proving its Positioning

FNB has remained relatively stable over time, ranking 3rd over the last 2 quarters, leveraging its strategic shift towards positioning itself as advisory focused, over being product-orientated. This has supported the brand’s accolade as the Strongest Brand in SA by Brand Finance and Africa’s Best International Private Bank in Botswana and Namibia, supporting customers across income bands, in making informed decisions to achieve their aspirations. The brand was also identified as having the cheapest value offering account for basic banking, through the FNB Fusion Aspire product offering, driving relevance of the brand across the population. FNB has also expanded its exchange-trade note (ETN) offering, adding 8 new ETNs, bringing its total to 50.

The Rise of e-Commerce

In driving brand engagement and growth, brands must capitalise on e-commerce trends and AI technology to be top of mind when it matters most. As consumer lifestyles become busier and more demanding, online shopping is increasingly accepted. AI has aided in driving personalisation and optimisation, allowing brands to package products and services in ways that are relevant and meet the evolving customer need. This integration enhances user experience and expands reach, making AI essential for modern marketing strategies.

Despite the rise of digital, traditional media continues to be a driving force in South Africa. Successful brands use omnichannel approaches to boost customer acquisition and retention. While digital platforms offer a cost-efficient solution, it requires ongoing effective measurement and optimisation. Case studies of successful brands that have leveraged AI and e-commerce, drive an ecosystem that is seamless, convenient, and affordable placing customers at the heart of the brand.

Sector-specific results for Q2 of 2024:

Sector-specific results for Q2 of 2024 highlight a relatively stable top five within each sector, with a few new entrants across the eight sectors tracked — notably, BP, MrPrice, MrPrice Home, Spar, Nando’s, Discovery and 1st for Women in their respective categories.