Member Article

New Index Predicts GiffGaff, Nationwide and Tesco Mobile to join Amazon and Netflix as top brands set for future

01 OCT, 2020, London: In the first forward-looking index of its kind, new consultancy Yonder, has identified the businesses best set to succeed in the future.

GiffGaff, Tesco Mobile and Nationwide have emerged from a study of over 70 well-known brands to be among those who are connecting best with their customers on a profound level, as people look to reorder their priorities in these times.

The new Yonder Opportunity Index reveals which household and high street names are rated highest by customers for their efforts to understand them at a deeper level. This is while all companies seek to continually identify growth opportunities in these uncertain times. The index shows those brands that possess the greatest “Y Factor”, successfully harnessing the experiences and desires of customers as a source of inspiration to identify growth opportunities and build on their previous reputation as truly customer driven brands. These companies are finding ways to keep delivering in a time of fundamental behaviour change.

An integral part of defining the Y-Factor scoring is identifying which companies actually delivered against customer needs during lockdown, versus those which consumers and non-customers perceived to better meet their expectations.

Yonder is the result of a £25m merger of Populus, BrandCap, Decidedly and Populus Data Solutions into one new consultancy. Its Co-CEO Manfred Abraham said of the Opportunity Index: “It is understandable why Netflix and Amazon have the highest Y-Factor scores, however it’s interesting to see the brands grouped alongside these agile and nimble companies. GiffGaff, Nationwide and Tesco Mobile have all had a focus on understanding their customer which almost all other companies can learn from.

That said, we don’t believe any single company has truly capitalised on the breadth of opportunity that our changing times present us with, but it is vital that every business understands what really matters to their customers now. To succeed, businesses must think about customer data as the source of future opportunity, rather than just a backward-looking measuring tool.“

According to customer realities, entertainment, connectivity and convenience brands are delivering best, led by Netflix followed by Amazon and Amazon Prime Video.

Abraham added: “Businesses have overcome big hurdles but there are still huge opportunities for them to do and achieve more. Businesses need to challenge the assumptions of what people are looking for and realise how customer outcomes have changed”.

Top Performing Businesses According to Customer Reality Rank Brand Y-Factor Score

1. Netflix 125.6
2. Amazon 123.2
3. Amazon Prime Video 121.2
4. Giffgaff 120.8
5. Tesco Mobile 120.2
6. Deliveroo 118.5
7. Nationwide 118.3
8. O2 117.5
9. Ocado 116.3
10. M&S Food 116.1

**Perception, Possibility and Provenance ** The second key factor in assessing businesses with the Y-Factor was evaluating how businesses might serve non-customers, presenting not only potential for growth amongst brands, but key for assessing the gap between the experiences of actual customers.

A key factor among nine of the top ten brands according to perceptions is their British identity or provenance, a key factor in how these companies scored well when it came to offering familiarity, security and a sense of normality.

Abraham said: “When it comes to perceptions during lockdown, people genuinely looked to the familiarity of businesses that have been part of the national fabric for some time, or that had a more aspirational offering and connected with people’s need to be able to create special moments or things to look forward to.”

“The brands which came out top were the ones which truly understood their customers and worked hard to fulfil expectation. The challenge for these companies is to imagine and understand what their futures may look like as the underlying consumer adapts and as the world changes.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Yonder .