Hong Kong brands take nine out of top ten spots in Brand Admiration Survey
14 November 2006
Ocean Park, The Peninsula and Cathay Pacific most Admired Brands in Hong Kong
HONG KONG — Home-grown Hong Kong service brands are more admired here than their international counterparts according to a survey on 45 major service brands released today by brand management consultancy The Ingram Brand Company, in association with global market research company Synovate.
The results come from the Hong Kong phase of the 2006 Brand Admiration Survey: The China Series, and show that nine out of the top ten most admired brands in the survey were from Hong Kong: Ocean Park, The Peninsula, Cathay Pacific, Shangri-La, Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, city'super, Lane Crawford and PARKnSHOP. Only one international brand - Sogo - stopped Hong Kong brands from taking a clean sweep of the top ten places in the survey.
Forty five brands were selected and surveyed, primarily from industry categories where comparison could be made between local and overseas players. Renowned international brands such as Starbucks, Four Seasons, Seibu, Manulife and Singapore Airlines also fared well, but were all out-ranked by the top ten local brands.
"In a city that continues to refashion itself as a key regional and global service centre, it is encouraging to see so many of Hong Kong's leading service players performing so well. Perhaps we should not be surprised as Ocean Park, The Peninsula and Cathay Pacific, for example, are all highly awarded organisations on the international stage," commented James Stuart, Managing Partner at Ingram.
The survey also set out to understand what locals see as the key drivers of brand admiration amongst a set of six given attributes. The top four attributes for driving brand admiration were 'quality products and services', 'sensitivity to customers' needs', 'delivering on promises' and 'efficiency' - each of these were seen by more than 85% of respondents to be drivers of brand admiration.
"What this survey shows is that while marketing is important in building brand admiration, there's much more to establishing and sustaining admired brands: your products, your people, whether you deliver on your promises and how efficiently you deal with customers' requests. If you simply focus on marketing alone to build brands and ignore these key components of the customer experience you are going to struggle to build a sustainable and successful brand," added Jill Telford, Managing Director of Synovate in Hong Kong.
Despite the success of Hong Kong's brands relative to their international rivals, the survey also showed that local brands still have much work to do. Over 60% of the Hong Kong brands surveyed were not admired by the majority of respondents and an average of nearly 60% of respondents did not associate the top ten Hong Kong brands with the most important drivers of brand admiration.
"What this survey seems to illustrate is that if Hong Kong brands want to improve their admiration ratings they are going to have to treat brand-building as a fundamental driver of their organisation's strategies and operations. There's no point in producing exotic (and expensive) advertising and logos if you don't then satisfy customers' expectations through all the other elements of the brand experience. Brand building is really much more about what you do, than what you say you do or how you look," concluded Wendy Lam, Associate Partner at Ingram.
A Brand Dialogue seminar based on the survey will be held on November 30, 2006 in association with Synovate. The session will include a presentation of the results and a debate among business leaders on branding issues. Details of the seminar and the report of the results are available to companies and members of the public by sending an email to Brenda Chan at brenda@ingrambrandco.com.
Interesting Findings
- The top three most admired industry categories were theme parks, hotels and airlines.
- The average admiration rating for the top three brands (Ocean Park, The Peninsula and Cathay Pacific) was 82%, versus an average of 64% for the remaining seven brands in the top ten.
- The top three performing brands in terms of the average association with the four key drivers were Ocean Park (69%), Cathay Pacific (68%) and Starbucks (55%).
- Despite its overall admiration rating placing it just outside the top ten most admired brands, Starbucks was a consistently high performer against the key brand drivers. It was ranked third in terms of 'sensitivity to customers' needs', 'delivers on promises' and 'efficiency' and fourth in terms of 'quality of products and services'.
- All three Hong Kong hotel brands in the survey (The Peninsula, Shangri-La and Mandarin Oriental) out-ranked the international brands.
- The top ranked mobile service provider was SmarTone-Vodafone, followed closely by 1010.
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Brand admiration varied by age and gender. For example:
- Admiration for Great was much stronger among women (34%) than men (19%)
- Singapore Airlines and the Mandarin Oriental were admired by more 50-64 year olds (57% for SQ and 62% for MO) than 15-24 year olds (18% for SQ and 30% for MO)
- More 25-34 year olds (48%) admire The Ritz Carlton than 15-24 year olds (16%)
- The highest rating for any brand in terms of its association with any brand admiration driver was 83% for Cathay Pacific for 'effective marketing'. The highest rating for any brand in terms of its association with one of the top four brand drivers was 75% for Ocean Park in terms of 'delivering on promises'.
About this Survey
The first in 'The Brand Admiration Survey 2006/2007: The China Series' was conducted among a sample of 503 Hong Kongers aged 15 to 64 with a minimum monthly household income of HK$30,000 between July 24 and August 25, 2006.
Forty five brands across ten product and service categories were included in the survey - airlines, banks, 5-star hotels, coffee shops/cafes, department/multi-purpose stores, health and fitness, life insurance, supermarkets, theme parks and 3G mobile network providers.
Hong Kong is the first city in a series of Chinese cities to be covered under 'The Brand Admiration Survey 2006/2007: The China Series'.
About The Ingram Brand Company
The Ingram Brand Company is a brand strategy consulting firm that brings business, brand and communications thinking together to build more profitable businesses for its clients.
It is part of the UK-based brand management consultancy group Ingram, with offices in London, New York and Hong Kong.
Comprising a team of professionals with backgrounds in business leadership, management consulting, marketing and communications planning and brand management, The Ingram Brand Company works with CEOs and their teams to help them articulate and deliver the key promise they make to their customers. It ensures its clients create consistent customer experiences in line with their desired brands.
Over the last five years, it has helped blue chip and entrepreneurial companies in Greater China and across Asia maximise the value of their brands.
More information on The Ingram Brand Company can be found at www.ingrambrandco.com.
Contact(s) for this press release
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Linda Collard
Director, Marketing Communications |
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9/F Leighton Centre |
Telephone: +852 2830 2588 |
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James Stuart/Peter Wilken at Ingram
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Tel: +852 2127 7028 |
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Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group plc, generates consumer insights that drive competitive marketing solutions. The network provides clients with cohesive global support and a comprehensive suite of research solutions. Synovate employs over 6,000 employees across 62 countries.
For more information on Synovate visit www.synovate.com.