Heinz most popular brand among British women

Amelia BrophyHead of Data Products, UK
March 07, 2019, 9:00 AM GMT+0

Soup and sauce maker replaces Boots at top of YouGov’s latest BrandIndex Women’s Choice Best Brand Rankings

The iconic American food company founded over a 150 years ago has risen from third place in last year’s list of the most popular brands among British women to take pole position, with an Impression score of +53.7.

Each year YouGov publishes its BrandIndex Women’s Choice Best Brand Rankings, showing which brands are held in highest esteem. The rankings are compiled by asking consumers “Overall, of which of the following brands do you have Positive/Negative impression?” Scores are net scores, calculated by subtracting the percentage of negative responses from the percentage of positive responses for each brand.

Heinz is followed this year by British high street staple Boots, which was last year’s winner (+52.9). Boots’ rating decreased by 1.3 points, taking the personal products retailer down to second position this year.

Meanwhile, Swedish furniture retailer IKEA rises from seventh place in 2018 to third (+52.2) - just one place ahead of John Lewis, which has dropped from second place last year (+51.6).

IKEA’s rise coincides with a year of change and innovation such as their new sustainable store, allowing businesses to lease furniture and multiple ingenious and creative marketing campaigns. Their success in this area has had universal appeal, but Buzz remains higher among men than women as the brand sat in fifth place in our overall Buzz Rankings earlier this year.

Leader Heinz is one of only three food manufacturing brands in the top ten. Also present are chocolatier Lindt (+50.3) and Maltesers (+50.1) who sit at sixth and seventh place respectively. Women’s impression of Heinz has improved over the years, increasing from +53.6 in 2018.

Perhaps surprisingly, the only personal care brand besides Boots to rank in the top 10 is Dove, with a score of +48.8 - suggesting again that brands with legacy and history (Dove was launched in 1955) can really resonate with consumers.

The rankings also reveal which brands have seen the biggest increase in impression among women over the past year. This year, the brand with the largest increase by a long way is TUI, the UK-based travel operator (formally Thomson Travel) which saw an increase of 10.1 points (score of +19).

Netflix takes second spot on the most improved list, with a 6.9 point increase, followed by Sports Direct (6.8 point increase), WhatsApp (6 point increase) and VISA (5.3 point increase).

Sports Direct and Primark are both high street brands to have seen one of the top ten largest increases this year among women, despite 2018 being dubbed the ‘death of the high street’.

To find out how highly women rank your brand in the UK, view the full rankings here.