Home News Cadbury Dairy Milk Tops RED C’s Brand Reaction Index for 2023

Cadbury Dairy Milk Tops RED C’s Brand Reaction Index for 2023

In the 2023 Brand Reaction Index published by RED C, Cadbury Dairy Milk held on to the top spot as Ireland’s most emotionally connected brand while Tayto and Lidl came in second and third spots respectively, write RED C’s Gavin Costello.

Cadbury Dairy Milk has maintained its No 1 position as Ireland’s most emotionally connected brand in 2023, extending its lead over competitor brands. The brand now has net positive emotional connection of +72, some 13 points ahead of the nearest competitor.

Tayto holds steady in 2nd position with a score of +59, while Lidl improves its position gaining a place to become Ireland’s 3rd most emotionally connected brand with a score of +57. An Post lands in 4th, up +2 on last year.

A strong performance from Dunnes Stores sees it up +13, cracking the top 10 brands for the first time. Brennans, a new entry, debuts in 5th position, while consumables brands Magnum, Twix & Digestives all see improvements to secure top 10 positions. Home Store + More hangs in the top 10 brands despite a marginal decline, down -1 vs 2022.

While the industry may like to think that consumers think long and hard about every brand choice, the evidence suggests this simply is not the case. Instead, people tend to make fast “good enough” brand choices based on mental shortcuts.

Behavioural and marketing scientists like Gerd Gigerenzer and the Ehernberg Bass Institute have done extensive work in this area to prove time and time again that a brand that is (mentally + physically) available, easily recognised and evokes positive emotional feelings is more likely to be chosen versus one that is not. To deliver a successful brand, it is imperative to get these right.

RED C’s Brand Reaction Index uses facial expressions as short cuts for emotions. We show a series of faces and then show a random selection of brands one at a time. Each time a brand is shown we ask consumers to choose as quickly as possible the emotion that they feel when they see that brand.

In June 2023 we completed our third national BRI test in Ireland to identify Ireland’s Top 100 Emotionally Connected Brands. Today’s results showcase the third year of measuring emotional connection of brands among Irish consumers, so we can see who is the most and least emotionally connected, how that connection has changed over time, and how is compares against competitor brands within the category.

Outside the top ten brands detailed, we do see some overall trends in emotional connection this year.

Grocery brands dominate the overall top 10 brands with 6 grocery brands in the list. While the aforementioned Cadbury Dairy Milk reclaims its title in this category, Tayto remains in 2nd at both a sector specific and overall level while consumables brands Magnum, Twix and Digestives all seeing notable improvements securing them top 10 positions, while drinks brands Coca Cola, Lucozade and Club Orange all make notable gains as well.

Gavin Costello, Senior Research Executive at RED C Research & Marketing Ltd.

Retail & Aviation
Supermarket brands also continue to have a strong positive emotional connection overall with Irish consumers. Lidl comes out as the most emotionally connected supermarket, landing in 3rd position overall. Dunnes and SuperValu have also made solid gains in this year’s survey, with Dunnes breaking into the Top 10, while SuperValu also experiences a healthy uplift of +13 bringing it back into the Top 50.

In the post-Covid world, airports and aviation brands have re-established more positive emotional connections with consumers after the challenges posed by Covid in 2020 and 2021. Dublin Airport shows a strong recovery being this year’s brand with the biggest increase when compared to 2022, up +44 and moving comfortably back into the top 100 brands at 85th. Elsewhere, Ryanair also see big gains with an increase of +25, which sees it in positive territory for the first time. Aer Lingus also gains +8 positioning the airline just outside the Top 10.

Entertainment
In the entertainment space, Netflix triumphs. However, Spotify is now hot their heels in 2nd position with the music streaming brand up +9 vs last year. Channel 4 & Disney+ slip down the ranks, down -7 and -4 respectively. Unlike British Broadcaster BBC, who dip -2 vs last year, Irish broadcasters TG4 and RTÉ see strong growth. However, fieldwork for this research predates the recent controversial headlines featuring RTÉ.

Finance
A number of Insurance brands see gains vs. 2022, but Irish Life continues to reign supreme despite slipping back marginally on last year. Aviva, AXA, Zurich and Allianz all make significant gains on last year, now coming in just behind Irish Life. Liberty, albeit further down the list of insurance brands, also experience similar levels of growth, while health insurance brands suffer with VHI down -12.

Social media and gaming brands have the poorest overall emotional connection with consumers. Both Boylesports’ and PaddyPower’s BRI scores remain starkly in the negative and land them both in the bottom 10 brands at an overall level. Instagram remains the only brand to foster somewhat positive emotional connections with consumers. Elsewhere, Facebook and TikTok had markedly negative BRI scores.

So, is this just a bit of fun or does it really matter? Our work suggests it is vitally important as one of the key shortcuts to deliver brand choice. The higher the BRI score, the more likely a brand is to be chosen over its competitors (assuming of course that the other two properties of being available and easily recognised are also true).

To download the full report click HERE

Previous articleCore Backs Irish National Women’s Team With New Campaign for Sky Ireland
Next articleBonnier Acquires Strategic Minority Stake in Business Post Group