All brands have a collective community and we are all members of several brand communities. We tend to use certain products, and there are some which we try to keep away from. We like certain types of chocolate bars, while we hate others, and we trust the menu system of certain mobile phones, but not others. Professionals of B&P Braun & Partners Magyarország and of GfK Hungária Market Research Institute wanted to find out in what ways users of products and services are different from or similar to each other, how this community is made up and what the factors shaping these communities are.

Pöttyös Túró Rudi, a Hungarian brand with a great cult, finished first in the first Hungarian top list of brand strength. This means that this brand has the strongest brand community in Hungary. The second position was taken by Coca-Cola, and the third by Danone. Two large commercial TV channels, RTL Klub and TV2 finished fourth and fifth respectively. It is typical that the top three are active in the FMCG business, and they are directly followed by television channels which are available to everybody within the country.

Those who were asked during the representative research selected Tesco, Adidas, Nokia, Nike and T-Mobile brands in the top ten. With this, Tesco became the leading brand of the retail sector, and Nokia has the strongest brand community on the IT and telecommunications market in Hungary. The list which ranks brand communities evaluated the observed brands based on four dimensions with equal weight: strength of brand bond, consciousness of kind, rituals & traditions of the brand community and moral responsibility for the community.

One of the reasons for Pöttyös Túró Rudi’s leading position is that this is the brand which nearly two thirds of respondents (64 per cent) feel close to. An other sign of a strong brand community is that 51 per cent of respondents can best identify themselves with the consumers of Pöttyös Túró Rudi. It is an everyday situation when an acquaintance, friend or family member of ours switches to an other brand within the same product category. Those asked would most likely attempt to discourage their acquaintances to switch brands in case of Pöttyös Túró Rudi (25 per cent). In an opposite situation, that is when an acquaintance consuming an other brand’s product is willing to change brands, 44 per cent of respondents would attempt to convince this customer to switch to Pöttyös Túró Rudi.

The slogan of Coca-Cola (taking the second position) proved to be one of the best-known slogans: 55 per cent of respondents believed they could recall it. Nothing proves better the idea that brands embrace our daily lives than the fact that a quarter of respondents could recall a story or situation in which Coca-Cola played a serious role. It was also Coca-Cola about which most people said that they could recall its logo or brand symbol (85 per cent).

List of the strongest brands in Hungary (Brand Community Survey)
Position Industry Brand Score
1 FMCG Pöttyös Túró Rudi 55,74
2 FMCG Coca-Cola 53,58
3 FMCG Danone 49,83
4 Media RTL Klub 48,25
5 Media TV2 47,64
6 Retail Tesco 45,97
7 Retail Adidas 45,76
8 IT and telecommunications Nokia 43,84
9 Retail Nike 41,15
10 IT and telecommunications T-Mobile 40,76
11 FMCG Pick 40,13
12 Finance OTP 35,19
13 IT and telecommunications Pannon 34,91
14 Retail Spar 33,28
15 FMCG RedBull 30,39
16 Automotive Suzuki 30,25
17 IT and telecommunications Vodafone 30,01
18 Media m1 29,49
19 FMCG Heineken 28,75
20 FMCG Jägermeister 27,37
21 FMCG Unicum 26,01
22 Automotive Audi 25,59
23 Retail E.ON 22,87
24 Automotive Ford 22,50
25 IT and telecommunications UPC 21,66
26 Retail IKEA 21,37
27 Media Blikk 21,00
28 Media Origo 19,42
29 Finance K&H 17,92
30 Healthcare Aspirin 17,42
31 FMCG AXE 17,19
32 Retail Kika 16,77
33 Healthcare Saridon 16,03
34 Finance Erste 13,19
35 Healthcare Durex 12,86
36 Media Index 12,35
37 Healthcare Advil 12,07
38 Finance ING 11,78
39 Finance AXA 8,96
40 Healthcare Richter 7,84
41 Automotive MINI 7,13

Best brands of the surveyed industries
Industry Brand Score
Automotive Suzuki 30,25
Healthcare Aspirin 17,42
FMCG Pöttyös Túró Rudi 55,74
IT and telecommunications Nokia 43,84
Retail Tesco 45,97
Media RTL Klub 48,25
Finance OTP 35,19

Methodology of research
List of the strongest brands was compiled based on data of a representative survey of the population. The sample of 1000 covers Hungarian population between 15 and 49 based on gender, place of residence (region) and size of settlement. The list evaluates the observed brands based on four dimensions of brand communities, all with equal weight:
• strength of brand bond,
• consciousness of kind (with other members of the brand community),
• rituals and traditions of the brand community,
• moral responsibility (member retention).

Selecting the sample
• The observed brands were picked from the list of TNS Media Intelligence based on their media expenses in 2009. The top 25 brands selected from the list by industry (automotive, financial sector, FMCG, healthcare sector, IT and telecommunications, media, retail), and from the industry top 50, was completed by additional 16 significant Hungarian brands.

For further information, please contact:
Braun Róbert
General Manager
+361 349 2939

Source: B&P Braun & Partners Magyarország