17 February 2017

Malaysians show digital savvy side in 2016

Source: YouGov Brandindex 2016 rankings for Malaysia are heavy on digital brands.
Source: YouGov Brandindex. 2016 rankings for Malaysia are heavy on digital brands. 

The YouGov Brandindex rankings for 2016 reflect a love affair with digital brands in Malaysia. WhatsApp, Facebook and Google were in the top three, followed by e-commerce site Lazada, the Apple iPhone, and YouTube in the top seven.

Brands were rated using BrandIndex’s Buzz score* which asks respondents, “If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?”

The Buzz Rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average Buzz scores* between January and December 2016.

Source: YouGov Brandindex. Top Buzz improvements in Malaysia for 2016.
Source: YouGov Brandindex. Top Buzz improvements in Malaysia for 2016. 

The Buzz Improvers chart ranks the brands with the highest increase in Buzz comparing scores in years 2015 and 2016. Both scores are representative of the general population.

The top Buzz improvers were Huawei, KFC and Lazada. Huawei in particular went from single-digit territory in 2015 to double digits in 2016.

Other highlights included:

+Automotive brands Toyota, Honda and BMW were in the top three.

+Quick service (QSR) restaurants and casual dining brands were all US brands, KFC, Domino's and McDonald's. KFC, McDonald's, and Texas Fried Chicken did best on Buzz improvements.

+In the area of finance, Maybank, CIMB and Public Bank won out. Insurance players Prudential, Great Eastern Life and AIA were in the lead, while AIG, Kurnia and AXA made the most gains in Buzz.

+Fashion retailers were more a mix of general goods providers which also offer fashion as well as pure fashion retailers. Uniqlo, JUSCO and Adidas were the best known brands. Adidas, FashionValet - which offers designer brands online - and Puma made the most gains for Buzz.

Telecom, Internet and pay-TV operators that were the most well-known included Digi, Celcom and U Mobile. P1 WiMax, while still in negative territory, and U Mobile did best on Buzz improvement.

+The e-commerce/m-commerce category saw e-marketplace Lazada, online fashion retailer Zalora and e-marketplace Mudah.my as its three leaders. Lazada, Fashionvalet and e-marketplace Alibaba grew in popularity over the last year.

+The mobile space was dominated by Apple's iPhone, Apple and Samsung. Huawei, Blackberry and Motorola demonstrated the most Buzz improvement, the latter two from more negative scores to less negative scores.

*All Buzz scores listed have been rounded to a single decimal place; additional precision was used internally to assign ranks.