Brits impression of the brand has fallen but consideration scores remain level, suggesting demand is outstripping supply
It’s been just over a week since non-essential shops were allowed to reopen after COVID-19 lockdown, and media outlets have been awash with images of Britons queuing round the block to return to their favourite high street stores.
One major retailer making headlines was Primark, who, like many other stores, have introduced limited customer numbers, plastic shields for staff, and social distancing rules to keep everyone safe. So how has the reopening gone, and how have Primark’s BrandIndex metrics reacted?
Looking at how the public perceive the brand, both Impression (whether someone has a positive or negative impression of a brand) and Buzz (a net measure of whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about the brand in the last fortnight) scores have fallen since June 15th when Primark first reopened its doors.
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Since June 15th, Primark’s Impression score has dropped 3.5 points from 7.0 to 3.5, and Buzz score has dropped 3 points from 2.4 to -0.6 in the same time frame.
However, when we look at other metrics we do not see the same pattern of decrease following the brands reopening. The Consideration score for example (whether someone would consider purchasing from the brand in future) has remained fairly consistent across the lockdown period, even seeing a small uptick since June 15th.
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This pattern is further reflected when looking at Primark’s purchase intent score (which brand is someone’s first choice to purchase from) which has risen throughout June, from 11.6% on the 1st to 14.6% on the 21st. Another metric on the rise is Word of Mouth score (whether someone has talked about the brand with friends and family in the last two weeks) which has seen a 7.5 percentage point increase to 23.2% since Primark reopened – showing Brits are still keen to buy from the budget brand and are talking about it.
What this could suggest is that changes to Primark’s Impression and Buzz score are being driven by demand outstripping supply, and Brits being frustrated with potential queueing to get back to Primark rather than being put off purchases by negative press coverage as the consistent Consideration and increased Purchase intent scores show.
