• Heard it through the grapevine: Levis popular
    Wednesday, 21st July 2010
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    A new YouGov SixthSense report into high street fashion reveals that Levis is still in demand despite a high ownership rate amongst UK consumers. The report, which investigates public perceptions of... [Read more]

  • Jonathan Ross transfer boosts ITV’s appeal
    Wednesday, 14th July 2010
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    BRANDINDEX aITV’s World Cup campaign did not start well. Customers viewing England’s opening game against the United States in high-definition (that ITV had marketed to them) found that their picture... [Read more]
  • BP’s mishandling of crisis adds to its troubles
    Wednesday, 7th July 2010
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    BRANDINDEX WE return to the woeful tale of the BP brand. How has it fared – and how has it affected other British brands? Graph one shows the BrandIndex daily tracking data for BP in America,... [Read more]
  • Brand performance can be read in the leaves
    Wednesday, 23rd June 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    Looking at YouGov’s BrandIndex, we sometimes have a sense of how a brand is performing before any major announcements to the City are made. Take the UK restaurant and hotel business Whitbread, which... [Read more]

  • Outrage starting to ease in oil spill situation
    Wednesday, 16th June 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    IN the last two weeks of this saga we have seen tensions in US-UK relations rise at the highest levels, with Obama accused of anti-British sentiment and Cameron called on to intervene, while BP chief... [Read more]
  • Funeral policies surge in demand as cost rises
    Wednesday, 9th June 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    THE death of a friend or loved one can bring unexpected financial costs, which can compound the emotional impact of the loss. A number of insurance companies offer products which will cover the cost... [Read more]
  • Prudential and BA suffer as reputations sink
    Wednesday, 26th May 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    YOUGOV’S BrandIndex scores show the insurance giant Prudential slipping since its announcement that it intends to acquire the Asian life insurance firm, AIA. BrandIndex has witnessed a dramatic drop... [Read more]
  • Harrods’ reputation lifted by Al Fayed’s sale
    Wednesday, 19th May 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    YOUGOV’S BrandIndex has seen Harrods’ “buzz” score climb dramatically since Mohammed Al Fayed, the shop’s owner since 1985, sold the Knightsbridge shop for £1.5bn ($2.3bn) to the Qatari royal family’... [Read more]
  • BP’s reputation sinks as size of spill spreads
    Thursday, 13th May 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    BP has witnessed a significant drop in its “impression” score on YouGov’s BrandIndex in the wake of the explosion on its leased oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, which resulted in eleven deaths and... [Read more]
  • Conservatives most against hung parliament
    Thursday, 6th May 2010
    BRAND INDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    SOON we’ll know if Britain is to be governed by a hung parliament for the first time since 1974. If it is, the graph shown will help explain it: Nick Clegg’s buzz, as measured by the “TellYouGov”... [Read more]
  • Nick Clegg wins on performance, not policy
    Wednesday, 21st April 2010
    BRAND INDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    THE question in everyone’s mind: will the Nick Clegg bounce last? Will we get a hung parliament? Is this the start of a new politics or a fun moment before we return to politics-as-usual? Let’s look... [Read more]
  • Mobile phone users are noisy about service
    Wednesday, 14th April 2010
    BRAND INDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    TELLYOUGOV, YouGov’s new service which allows people to tell us what they are thinking, has seen “tyggers” revealing how they feel about the nation’s mobile phone network operators. TellYouGov also... [Read more]
  • Thumbs up to all-day pubs, but not Lynx effect
    Wednesday, 7th April 2010
    BRAND INDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    During the last month, here at YouGov, we have invited our panellists to give their opinions on anything they like, using our new “tygga” service. The aim is to let panellists use their own words... [Read more]
  • Cable charms voters in the chancellor debate
    Wednesday, 31st March 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    YOUGOV has a new addition to its BrandIndex offering: TellYouGov. The usual way to do research is to ask people to fill out surveys: the researcher decides what topic should be explored and the... [Read more]
  • BBC retains its popularity in spite of cost cuts
    Wednesday, 17th March 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    BRANDINDEX’S “Buzz” score is calculated by taking the number of respondents who have heard something positive about a brand in the last week, and taking away those who have heard something negative... [Read more]
  • Apple’s iPhones break – but we still love them
    Wednesday, 10th March 2010
    CITY COMMENT
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    WHAT a remarkable brand Apple is! My daughters and I all have iPhones, and all of them are broken – yet we still love our beautiful gadget. A friend of mine who is an avid advocate for all things... [Read more]
  • British Gas beats BT in the utilities price war
    Wednesday, 3rd March 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    IT seems that British consumers are very sensitive to the details of their arrangements with their utility suppliers. This week we compare one utilities company that has benefited from this (British... [Read more]
  • Public turns against Kraft over Cadbury deal
    Wednesday, 17th February 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    Peter Mandelson has expressed his “disappointment” at the manner of Kraft’s take-over of Cadbury, and the public, as measured by BrandIndex, seems to agree. Graph one shows what has happened to... [Read more]
  • Prius hybrid callback continues to hit brand
    Wednesday, 10th February 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    YOUGOV’s BrandIndex shows a steep fall in Toyota’s reputation with consumers following a series of recent recalls of their vehicles. The company has been plagued by a number of problems concerning... [Read more]
  • Hype of Apple’s iPad is better than the reality
    Wednesday, 3rd February 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    The launch of the Apple iPad at the end of last week led to a strong increase in the buzz score for the general Apple brand as measured by BrandIndex. That might have been expected, but graph one... [Read more]
  • Retail banks the worst hit by Obama’s plans
    Wednesday, 27th January 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    YOUGOV’S BrandIndex operates in the United States, as well as the UK and continental Europe. We have looked at the impact that President Obama’s announcement on 21 January may have had on the... [Read more]
  • Britain is not heading for a hung parliament
    Wednesday, 20th January 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    LAST year was tough for the banking industry, but it’s interesting to see which brands fared better than others. The two graphs show the proportion of positive responses each brand received out of... [Read more]
  • Waitrose and Sainsbury’s boost their brands
    Wednesday, 13th January 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    RETAILERS have had a bumper Christmas according to the British?Retail?Consortium, but here is my review of 2009 as far as supermarkets are concerned. Graph 1 shows the share of total attention that... [Read more]
  • BA’s image recovers from threat of strike action
    Wednesday, 6th January 2010
    BRANDINDEX
    STEPHAN SHAKESPEARE
    JOHN Lewis yesterday announced strong Christmas sales – and certainly from the BrandIndex satisfaction scores, it seems that Waitrose customers were satisfied with their Christmas shopping. Graph One... [Read more]
  • Supermarkets score for both value and reputation
    Wednesday, 16th December 2009
    BRANDINDEX
    Stephan Shakespeare
    In the highly-competitive world of supermarkets, there are two basic types of brand: those which are “cheap and cheerful”, which focus on low cost while maintaining reasonable quality; and those... [Read more]