Latest Kaizo Advocacy Index Released

New research released today (06 June 2012) reveals the latest winners and losers in terms of brands’ online reputations. Lumix comes out top overall in the study, with budget airline Easyjet, ASDA, Shreddies and ASUS winning the sector battles.

The Kaizo Advocacy Index, a bi-annual audit of online reputation, has analysed digital news and social media outlets to rank UK household names including; supermarkets, cameras, airlines, breakfast cereals and computer manufacturers. The study is based on consumers’ actual behaviour and experience by analysing what appears on; the first three pages of a Google web, news and blog search, the top twenty tweets and the top ten Facebook pages, discounting any pages owned by the brand in question. The sentiment is recorded and a percentage score calculated which can be positive or negative.

Lumix ranked first overall in what was a very high scoring camera sector, whilst all PC brands also scored very highly, as both sectors relied largely on positive product reviews to influence the sentiment of coverage.  Meanwhile, Shreddies proved that content remains king in the cereal category, by creating engaging, shareable content that focused on nutrition and health, a subject of high importance to many parents.

With the economy and value clearly top of mind, no frills airline Easyjet and budget supermarket chain ASDA performed the best in their sectors. Whether it’s introducing small benefits to improve customer experience without compromising on price or a real push towards cheaper own-brand products, during periods of recession, those companies which focus on value are likely to fare well.

Supermarket and airline brands in particular often suffer from large volumes of negative feedback, particularly on social media, by consumers dissatisfied with the service they receive. Brands can help to counter these negative posts by creating positive news, great examples of which include Sainsbury’s renaming its tiger bread ‘giraffe bread’ following a letter from a three-year-old girl, Virgin Atlantic launching its ‘Upper Class Red’ lipstick, and HP hiring chauffeur-driven vans to whisk business people around London.

Below are the headline summaries for supermarkets, airline, cameras, cereals and PCs. The full press release including executive summaries for each sector can be found here and overall results for each sector can be viewed in the main report here

• Supermarkets – Savvy supermarket ASDA leads and powerful partnership sees Waitrose take second place

• Airlines – Customer expectation allows Easyjet to soar past Virgin Atlantic

• Cameras – All smiles for the Lumix camera whilst it’s a bad picture for Kodak

• Cereals – From nutrition to nookie, cereal brands remain full of energy

• PCs – ASUS finishes on top as tablets reign supreme whilst HP gets creative to boost its reputation online