Rolls Royce Ranks #1 in Quality Among Automotive Brands According to The Harris Interactive Spring 2003 EquiTrend Brand Study
Among Automotive Brands, Harley Davidson, a New Player in the Ranking, Shows A Strong 3rd Place Behind Rolls Royce (#1) and Mercedes Benz (#2)
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Aug. 28 -- Ranking at the top among world-class brands for quality is important to any company or product brand. Harris Interactive(R) has just released the results of the Spring 2003 EquiTrend(R) brand study which show Smithsonian Institution at #1, Craftsman Tools still holding at #2, Crayola Crayons & Markers (#3), Bose (#4) and Hershey's Kisses, up from #8 last wave to #5 now.
Smithsonian, a newcomer to the survey this year, achieved a very positive result at #1 among all brands. Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil moved up from #10 in the fall 2002 survey to #6 now. M&M's Chocolate Candies maintains a strong ranking at #7, while Discovery Channel moved from #4 to #8 this wave. WD-40 made the top-ten list of quality brands overall, moving up to #9 from #11 in the fall 2002; and, Ziploc Food Bags moved up from #15 to #10.
Moving out of the top-ten list as a world-class brand for overall quality this wave are Waterford Crystal (#1 in fall 2002), Mercedes Benz (#7 in fall 2002) and TLC (The Learning Channel) (#9 in fall 2002).
Interestingly, newcomer to the survey, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles (which ranked #32 overall) outranked many brands within the automotive brand category, including Porsche (#4), Bentley (#5), Ferrari (#6), BMW (#7) and Lexus automobiles (#8), to capture the #3 spot behind Rolls Royce (#1) and Mercedes Benz (#2). The quality score of each of the top-ten automotive brands was above 7, which is considered a strong rating.
In the retail brand category, Barnes & Noble (ranked #45 overall, and #1 in the retail category) and Home Depot (#2) maintain their strong rankings for overall quality. Walmart (#3) moved up from the #10 position in fall 2002. Most of the retail brands maintained a steady presence in the top-ten for that category, while a few: Victoria's Secret (#8), Bed, Bath & Beyond (#9) and Discovery Channel Stores (#10), moved up to enter that list in this spring 2003 survey.
Nokia Cellular Phones (#1), Motorola Cellular Phones (#2) and Motorola Pagers (#3) continue to top the telecommunications brand list while Verizon holds on to the 4th and 5th positions. Bell South (#6), up from #11, AT&T (#7), AT&T Wireless (#8) and Nextel (#9) hold strong positions, while T-Mobile Wireless, new to the survey, captures the #10 spot for this category.
Financial services brands didn't see much of a change in quality rankings since the previous survey. Most brands have maintained their positions, with American Express Travelers Cheques, Visa, Mastercard, Fannie Mae and Discover in the top five. Western Union Money Transfer Service, not measured earlier, takes the #6 position. American Express (#7) and State Farm Insurance (#8) remain consistently strong brands while Blue Cross/Blue Shield moved up from #12 to #9 in front of Fidelity, which has maintained its #10 spot.
Table 1
Top Ten World Class Brands Overall
(Among 1,152 total brands included in the survey)
SPRING 2003 FALL 2002 SPRING 2002
BRAND RANK QUALITY SALIENCE EQUITY RANK QUALITY RANK QUALITY
Smithsonian
Institution 1 8.23 79 64.9 NA NA NA NA
Craftsman
Tools 2 8.17 88 71.6 2 8.23 2 8.37
Crayola
Crayons &
Markers 3 8.12 94 76.2 3 8.20 6 8.15
Bose Stereo
& Speaker
Systems 4 8.12 72 58.7 5 8.18 4 8.15
Hershey's
Kisses 5 8.08 99 79.6 8 8.12 3 8.16
Reynolds
Wrap
Aluminum
Foil 6 8.08 97 78.6 10 8.11 7 8.12
M&M's
Chocolate
Candies 7 8.05 98 79.3 6 8.17 10 8.09
Discovery
Channel 8 8.02 93 74.9 4 8.20 1 8.38
WD-40 Spray
Lubricant 9 8.01 90 72.4 11 8.07 5 8.15
Ziploc Food
Bags 10 7.98 98 77.9 15 8.00 17 7.96
* The Overall Quality score is the average rating on a 0 - 10 scale.
Note: Scores are ranked to the third decimal place. There are no ties.
Source: Spring 2003 EquiTrend(R) brand study by Harris Interactive(R)
Table 2
Top Ten Automotive Manufacturer Brands
(Among 62 automotive brands included in the survey)
CATEGORY CATEGORY
RANK RANK
CATEGORY RANK FALL SPRING
BRAND SPRING 2003 QUALITY SALIENCE EQUITY 2002 2002
Rolls-Royce Motor
Cars 1 7.88 57 44.7 2 2
Mercedes-Benz
Automobiles 2 7.78 72 56.0 1 1
Harley Davidson
Motorcycles 3 7.76 72 55.7 NA NA
Porsche Automobiles 4 7.60 66 50.1 3 5
Bentley Automobiles 5 7.60 45 34.3 5 3
Ferrari Automobiles 6 7.50 58 43.3 4 4
BMW Automobiles 7 7.45 71 53.0 6 6
Lexus Automobiles 8 7.41 67 50.0 7 7
Diehard Car Batteries 9 7.40 73 54.3 10 10
Michelin Automobile
Tires 10 7.33 73 53.5 8 8
* The Overall Quality score is the average rating on a 0 - 10 scale.
Note: Scores are ranked to the third decimal place. There are no ties.
Source: Spring 2003 EquiTrend(R) brand study by Harris Interactive(R)
Table 3
Top Ten Retail Brands
(Among 100 retail brands included in the survey)
CATEGORY CATEGORY
RANK RANK
CATEGORY RANK FALL SPRING
BRAND SPRING 2003 QUALITY SALIENCE EQUITY 2002 2002
Barnes & Noble
Book Stores 1 7.66 90 69.2 1 1
Home Depot Home
Improvement Retailer 2 7.36 90 66.4 2 2
Wal-Mart Discount
Stores 3 7.29 97 71.0 10 4
Lowe's Home Improvement
Warehouses 4 7.26 79 57.1 6 5
Target Stores 5 7.18 94 67.7 3 7
Borders Book Stores 6 7.15 71 50.5 5 6
Office Depot Office
Supply Stores 7 7.00 90 62.9 9 8
Victoria's Secret
Stores 8 6.96 77 53.6 17 10
Bed Bath & Beyond
Stores 9 6.94 78 54.1 11 NA
Discovery Channel
Stores 10 6.94 59 40.6 NA NA
* The Overall Quality score is the average rating on a 0 - 10 scale.
Note: Scores are ranked to the third decimal place. There are no ties.
Source: Spring 2003 EquiTrend(R) brand study by Harris Interactive(R)
Table 4
Top Ten Telecommunication Brands
(Among 25 telecommunication brands included in the survey)
CATEGORY CATEGORY
RANK RANK
CATEGORY RANK FALL SPRING
BRAND SPRING 2003 QUALITY SALIENCE EQUITY 2002 2002
Nokia Cellular
Phones 1 6.81 73 49.9 1 1
Motorola Cellular
Phones 2 6.62 63 42.0 2 2
Motorola Pagers 3 6.17 46 28.5 3 3
Verizon Communications 4 6.04 71 42.6 7 6
Verizon Wireless 5 6.01 65 39.3 4 4
BellSouth 6 5.66 48 27.0 11 11
AT&T 7 5.66 91 51.3 9 7
AT&T Wireless 8 5.60 65 36.3 5 9
Nextel Wireless 9 5.59 43 24.2 8 12
T-Mobile Wireless 10 5.57 36 19.8 NA NA
* The Overall Quality score is the average rating on a 0 - 10 scale.
Note: Scores are ranked to the third decimal place. There are no ties.
Source: Spring 2003 EquiTrend(R) brand study by Harris Interactive(R)
Table 5
Top Ten Financial Services/Insurance Brands
(Among 57 financial services/insurance brands included in the survey)
CATEGORY CATEGORY
RANK RANK
CATEGORY RANK FALL SPRING
BRAND SPRING 2003 QUALITY SALIENCE EQUITY 2002 2002
American Express
Travelers Cheques 1 7.33 69 50.9 1 1
Visa 2 6.98 89 62.3 2 2
MasterCard 3 6.66 84 56.0 3 3
Fannie Mae 4 6.32 48 30.3 5 4
Discover 5 6.25 70 44.0 4 5
Western Union Money
Transfer Service 6 6.16 50 30.7 NA NA
American Express 7 6.11 67 41.0 6 6
State Farm Insurance 8 6.02 68 40.9 9 9
Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Insurance 9 5.93 74 44.1 12 18
Fidelity Investments
Financial Services 10 5.92 34 20.1 10 8
* The Overall Quality score is the average rating on a 0 - 10 scale.
Note: Scores are ranked to the third decimal place. There are no ties.
Source: Spring 2003 EquiTrend(R) brand study by Harris Interactive(R)
How Brands Are Rated and Scored
EquiTrend measures brand equity across many categories, and the study provides a comprehensive view of a brand's current position against competitors, helping to identify potential synergies in the marketplace. It can also be used to assess goodwill in a brand - normally an elusive element to quantify.
The study measures:
-- Quality - rated on a scale ranging from 0-10 ("0"-unacceptable/poor)
("5"-quite acceptable) ("10"-outstanding/extraordinary). If the mean
score is 8 or above, the brand is considered "world-class." Seven (7)
is considered a "strong" rating and approximately 15 percent of all
the brands fall within the "7" to "8" range. As a rule, the majority
of brands score within the "6" to "7" range.
-- Salience - the percentage of people who feel aware and informed enough
about the brand to rate it.
-- Equity - equals (quality) times (salience) divided by 10
Methodology
The Harris Interactive Spring 2003 EquiTrend(R) brand study was conducted via the Internet within the United States between May 1 and 12, 2003. A nationwide cross-section of 43,626 consumers, ages 15 and older were randomly selected from among the Harris Interactive online panel of respondents and invited to participate. Approximately 2,900 respondents rated each brand out of a total of 1,152 brands measured, each respondent rating 100 randomly selected brands.
Figures for age, sex, race, education, income, presence of children (under 18 years old) in the household, and geographic region were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Survey data were weighted using 2000 U.S. census data. The data were also propensity weighted to adjust for differences in attitudes between the general consumer population and those of the online panel. This ensures that the online data accurately reflect the general population.
In theory, with randomly selected online sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the consumer perceived brand quality rating results have an average statistical precision of plus or minus 0.14 percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. These include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, and weighting by demographic control data. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample was not a probability sample.
About Harris Interactive(R)
Harris Interactive (www.harrisinteractive.com) is a worldwide market research and consulting firm best known for The Harris Poll(R), and for pioneering the Internet method to conduct scientifically accurate market research. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, U.S.A., Harris Interactive combines proprietary methodologies and technology with expertise in predictive, custom and strategic research. The Company conducts international research through wholly owned subsidiaries-London-based HI Europe (www.hieurope.com) and Tokyo-based Harris Interactive Japan-as well as through the Harris Interactive Global Network of local market- and opinion-research firms, and various U.S. offices.
