Brands that generated the most buzz in the first quarter of 2024

Consumer insights agency KLA, the exclusive partner for YouGov in the sub-Saharan region, has released the fifth edition of its Quarterly Buzz report, which spotlights the brands creating the most “buzz” in the SA market. 

The Quarterly Buzz leverages the YouGov BrandIndex tool, a dynamic platform that consistently evaluates public sentiment of more than 200 brands in SA across eight categories. Through the BrandIndex tool, the top 10 performing brands across sectors are highlighted, with the top five brands respectively named within each category.

Employing a comprehensive framework of 16 metrics that span the marketing funnel, the BrandIndex tool’s 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 three-month period, forming the basis for the Quarterly Buzz results, with the latest results being measured from January 1 to March 31 2024. 

Brand winners

The top performing brands across all sectors in the first quarter of 2024 are:

1. Woolworths (Food);
2. Takealot;
3. FNB;
4. Checkers;
5. Pick n Pay;
6. Woolworths (Clothing and footwear);
7. Clicks;
8. Vodacom;
9. Mr P Home; and
10. Engen.

After a year of tracking — the first Quarterly Buzz was released in January 2023 — the Food, Groceries, and Consumables sector continues to maintain a strong presence in the top 10, with four of the top 10 brands from this sector.

This trend is expected to continue, with consumers noting plans to reduce spending across retail categories, with the exception of groceries.

While significant declines in Buzz performance were noted across six brands in the last quarter, the market has begun to stabilise.

For the first time since the launch of the Quarterly Buzz, Takealot (with specific reference to its Automotive department), has been overtaken by Woolworths Food, which has consistently placed fourth over the last three quarters.

Woolworths Food maintains a strong presence in the market across the marketing funnel despite experiencing a softening in 12 of the 16 metrics. With a marginal improvement in the brand’s Buzz performance propelling it to the top spot, this has consequently pushed FNB and Checkers down by one rank each.

While there are no new contenders this quarter, Pick n Pay and Clicks have both seen a two-rank position improvement, securing fifth and seventh place, respectively. Mr Price Home has slipped in rank to ninth place due to a decline in Buzz, with Engen maintaining stability in 10th position.

In the latest report, specific brands’ performance reflects dynamic trends in the SA market:

Woolworths: Diversifying its portfolio

Woolworths has strategically tapped into one of the country’s fastest-growing sectors, the pet industry. Woolworths announced its intention to acquire 93.45% of Absolute Pets shares. This acquisition, greenlit by the competition tribunal, took effect on April 1.

This acquisition positions Woolworths to compete against Checkers, who owns Petshop Science and specialist pet stores, but also encourages and reinforces its foothold in serving the upper middle consumer.

Pick n Pay: Adaptation to consumer needs

While Pick n Pay has recently faced challenging times, the brand remains steadfast in its commitment to serving its customer base.

According to the South African Loyalty Landscape Whitepaper by Truth and BrandMapp, the Clicks ClubCard and Pick n Pay Smart Shopper loyalty programmes ranked as the second and third most used loyalty programme respectively among economically active consumers.

Additionally, Pick n Pay’s partnership with Mr D to deliver food, along with its promise to consumers in offering the same in-store prices via the app, is testament to its dedication to supporting consumers in a market of financial uncertainty.

With exclusive benefits such as the option to redeem loyalty points on airtime and data, the brand further enhances its relevance to consumers.

Driving brand engagement and growth

While macro-environmental factors continue to shape consumer behaviour, emphasising the need for value for money and convenient products and services, brands must innovate in ways that support consumers’ ability to capitalise on this.

With six of the top 10 brands noting significant declines in brand awareness, it is imperative to understand how brands can cut through clutter.

The rise of digital content offers increased opportunity to personalise and target messaging, enhancing consumer engagement. This also contributes to a paradox that drives consumer choice fatigue and decreases mental availability.

Maintaining brand distinctiveness and developing consumer connection continues to play an important role in driving brand growth. However, leveraging on consumers’ physical and mental availability supports this delicate ecosystem more effectively.

Beyond driving awareness, it is critical to ensure that consumers remember your brand when in need of particular products and services. Further aligning these techniques to brand strategy enhances opportunity to drive meaningful brand engagement.

Sector-specific results 

Sector-specific results for Q1 2024 showcase a relatively stable top five within each sector, with a few new entrants across three of the eight sectors tracked, notably Truworths, Steers, Capitec and Assupol in their respective categories.

For more information about the Quarterly Buzz, visit the KLA website or contact enquiries@kla.co.za

This article was sponsored by KLA.