ID :
114954
Sun, 04/04/2010 - 14:47
Auther :

Emirates remains high in UAE brands Top 10

Dubai, April 4, 2010 (WAM)- Local brands Emirates and Masafi are among top 10 UAE power brands, even as automobile giant Toyota has dropped out of the list according to a report in "Emirates Business".
Toyota's recent withdrawal of its cars from the regional and international markets has severely dented its image, and it was left out – along with Lexus – from the list released by YouGov Siraj's BrandIndex. Last year, Toyota and Lexus were at fifth and tenth position with 57 and 45 points.
"The recent debacle, incited by a global recall of various Toyota models, illustrates how drastically brand perception can change even for the strongest giants," said Iman Annab, CEO of YouGov Siraj, which is a subsidiary company of YouGov UK, a research firm.
Nokia, the international telecom and network provider, is back at the top of the list, up from its second position in 2009. Nokia was number one in 2008 with 75.9 points. This year's top position has a score of 65.3 points, compared with 71 points in the second position last year.
Emirates airline is at number two this year, with 63.5 points. Last year, the Dubai-based international airline was one point ahead of Nokia, and so had taken the top spot. In 2009, it recorded its biggest jump – with a gain of 9.2 points from the fourth position the year before.
"BrandIndex is an international tool that helps the way businesses measure the health of their brand equity. This barometer, produced by YouGov Siraj, gathers the daily online views of consumers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia across more than 430 brands," said an official YouGov communiqué.
The new scoreboard reflects the launch of an additional seven sectors in January, including media, retail, luxury, snacks, beverages, education and non-food FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods). The new brands – Dettol, Carrefour, Masafi, Ikea and Nestlé – claim five of the top 10 positions while the top four brands – Nokia, Emirates, Google and Sony – continue to lead the pack.
"BrandIndex has literally doubled the number of sectors and brands it monitors on a daily basis," said Annab.
The gaps between brands below the top two positions and extending down to brands in the top 15 range, are fairly narrow. Brands such as Microsoft, Ikea, Nestlé and Mercedes differ in score by very small degrees.
Dettol, the only representative of the non-food FMCG sector, has an index score of 58, only a hair's breadth away from technology giants Sony and Google, which have respective scores of 59 and 60. Mercedes, with 51.5 points, has a strong chance of reappearing in the top 10 by next quarter's release.
"Toyota, once ranked fifth in the UAE, has since dropped in score by as much as 14 points and no longer appears even in the top 15," said the YouGov statement.
Speaking of BrandIndex's accuracy, the tracker explained that more than 400 brands are monitored daily in each country across 15 industry sectors, including automobile, banking, property development, dining, consumer electronics and internet, telecom and network providers, healthcare, leisure and hospitality, retail, media, snacks, beverages, non-food FMCG, luxury and education. It has a panel of 210,000 researchers.

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