Discount supermarkets top simplicity index
Siegel+Gale champions the idea that simplicity is the most valuable asset a brand can attain.
The consultancy backs up this assertion with an annual report that evaluates the level of simplicity attained by major brands.
The Global Brand Simplicity Index, now in its fifth year, ranks brands according to their simplicity credentials. This year Aldi secured the top spot for the second year in a row, and fellow discount supermarket, Lidl, achieved third place.
This year’s findings mirror the well-documented rise of discount supermarket brands over their more traditional competitors, such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco; brands that have both experienced crises in the past year. The index suggests that the growing market share enjoyed by Aldi and Lidl is largely down to simplicity of brand.
The report finds that traditional supermarket brands lose simplicity scores due to factors such as complicated approaches to online shopping, overpriced premium ranges and decline in own brand quality.
Liana Dinghile, group strategy director EMEA at Siegel+Gale, says, “It’s time for supermarkets to move away from price war ads and back to basics, allowing them to deliver, swift simple products and services across channels.”
Also in the top 10 are Google, McDonald’s, Ikea and Amazon, though Amazon has fallen nine places amid concerns surrounding tax avoidance and a sense that the brand is overextending itself with a fast-growing range of products and services.
This year’s research also indicates that people find LinkedIn the most complex social media brand and find Facebook more visually appealing. LinkedIn falls in the bottom 10 brands for the second year running and UK respondents attribute this to the company sending too many emails and having an ‘unnecessarily complex’ website.
The Brand Simplicity Index was compiled using feedback from 12,318 consumers in 8 countries. Siegel+Gale believe that a focus on simplicity isolates a brand’s core identifiers and helps it tell an engaging story.
