By David Jenkin

Since 2009, the Icon Brands index has been providing insight into which brands are closest to the hearts of local consumers. Over 8000 brands across 19 product categories are measured through a research process involving 15 000 interviews. The research is sponsored by Rapport and City Press, and conducted in partnership with Target Group Index (TGI).

In her opening address at the 2016/2017 Icon Brands awards, Ask Afrika CEO and founder, Andrea Rademeyer, said; “We’ve gathered today to look into brand loyalty in this country. What we’ve seen with results is that loyalty is waning.” The difficulty in maintaining customer loyalty in today’s market, and the reasons for that, were touched upon repeatedly.

“We celebrate our twenty-first birthday this year, and TGI has been with us for ten years now, and it’s become a beautiful partnership where we use TGI to make our vision possible, of changing the world. What we’ve done is created a multitude of benchmarks, this is one, the Icon Brands.”

She explained that, although there are many benchmarks in the industry, Icon Brands is intended to be the Holy Grail. “It needed to be extremely scientific, of course, there can’t be any pre-selection of brands, it needs to be a measure of brands used most loyally. What it can’t be, is an affair. It can’t be an opinion poll, it can’t be a popularity contest, and it can’t be a measurement of aspiration … nor is it a measurement of market share.”

She described the Icon Brands index as a dynamic and agile benchmark that keeps evolving with the addition of new categories, and this year the list had grown. She added that being an icon means being one of a kind, so amongst all other measurements, Ask Afrika has tried to create something that stands out.

Maria Petousis, TGI director at Ask Afrika, welcomed the top ten winners (out of the year’s total of 39 identified Icon Brands) on stage to receive their awards. They were, in descending order from tenth place: Koo Tin Fruits, I&J Fish Fingers, Knorr Aromat, Sea Harvest, All Gold Tomato Sauce, Koo Baked Beans, Kiwi Shoe Polish, Sunlight Washing Liquids, Coca Cola, and taking the number one spot was Sunlight Bar Soap.

Sarina de Beer, Ask Afrika managing director, followed with a discussion about the stark realities that South African consumers are currently faced with and how that is affecting their choices. “We are seeing the lowest loyalty rates to date, and we do expect these rates to drop even further in the next couple of years.” That is not entirely due to the economy motivating people to look for better deals, she explained, as consumers have also become more open to new experiences and experimentation with more options available to them.

She said that it is crucial for brands to be more consumer-centric to keep up with how consumers evolve. “Brands are not yet succeeding in meeting the emotional demands of consumers. This extends way beyond affinity but requires an authentic and meaningful relationship with dialogue to try and build any kind of commitment to sustain consumer relationships at the moment.” She spoke of a new reality where feelings are regarded as facts, and that marketers needed to understand how real those feelings are and adapt accordingly.

“Now in the current reason versus emotion brand equation, behavioural economics, we know, is a key element in our toolbox to become more successful as marketers,” she said. “In addition, we know that personification and understanding better how to connect brands with emotions are the next key steps we must consider. Lastly, it’s about the art of story and how we actually need to get emotion to drive action so that reason can enable conclusion.”

For more information, visit www.askafrika.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or on LinkedIn.