Brand Indicator Switzerland: These are the top brands of the future

Frank Bodin, Deeptrue, Kingfluencers and Furrerhugi on Wednesday night released the latest results of the brand study "Brand Indicator Switzerland" (BIS) presented. The study forecasts the future development of brands based on consumer and influencer ratings. The aim is to support brand and marketing managers in recognizing developments at an early stage and making the right decisions.

As part of the study, 280 brands from the retail, e-commerce, mobility, telecom and media sectors, as well as political parties, were assessed with 1,600 consumer and over 300 influencer surveys.

A look into the future of brands

The BIS measures the two brand factors "relevance" and "emotionality", which are decisive for the actual success of a brand. While most brand studies depict the present, the "Brand Indicator Switzerland" also aims to provide an outlook into the future. This is done by comparing the opinions of the population as a whole with the views of influencers.

Because influencers are often ahead of the times and constantly influence their followers, the opinion of these influencers is a good indicator for predicting the future success and appeal of brands or industries. For example, the most relevant brands of the future are WhatsApp, Google, Instagram, Post, Twint and Migros.

Some brand insights per industry 

Migros and Coop remain the top brands in the Swiss retail trade, according to the study. Aldi, followed by Lidl, are definitely established in the Swiss brand world, but their future momentum has diminished. The study also shows that Digitec Galaxus is the leading e-commerce brand in Switzerland - and proof that differentiating, creative advertising with a consistent central idea leads to success. Amazon and Scout24 are also rated extremely positively.

Unsurprisingly, SBB belongs to the club of the strongest mobility brands, together with Swiss and TCS. The Lufthansa brand falls surprisingly short in comparison.

WhatsApp, YouTube and Google are among the big winners of the brand study and will continue to be among the strongest brands in the future. However, there are significant differences between the age segments in the social media platforms, not only in terms of usage, but also in the assessment of brand relevance. SRF and 20 minutes remain the strongest media brands in Switzerland. However, media titles generally score moderately among the population as a whole. Their rather poor brand relevance is a further sign of the continuing media crisis. On a positive note NZZ and 24heures have a promising future momentum.

Among the banks, the cantonal banks, Raiffeisen and Post Finance show positive values in terms of relevance and emotionality, while the big banks UBS and Credit Suisse score weakly among the population as a whole. According to the study, customer proximity therefore seems to pay off. Despite negative headlines, however, UBS and Credit Suisse perform surprisingly strongly among influencers. The Twint brand has taken Switzerland by storm and has now even overtaken Mastercard.

The fact that political parties know how to make insufficient use of modern marketing mechanisms is demonstrated each time new elections are held. It can be argued that factual politics has nothing to do with the low points of a brand promise. But the weak relevance scores are a clear indication that the parties need to reform, especially in communications. From a brand perspective, the Greens are the only party with a clear future momentum as a brand.

Pandemic fueled two brand trends

The pandemic has accelerated digitization: Digital brands are conquering Switzerland across the board, even in older target groups, and are displacing traditional brands, as shown by the performance of Instagram, Google and WhatsApp in the rankings of the brand study: In the future ranking, 50 percent of the top 16 brands are new, digital brands, and that's in relevance and emotion. The environmental theme has also caught on with all brands. This is also made clear by the supplementary survey with an extremely clear result of 86.1%. Labels such as Fairtrade and Migros Bio are among the top 16 brands.

The "Brand Indicator Switzerland" (BIS) was realized by Frank Bodin, Deeptrue, Kingfluencers and Furrerhugi. Companies and organizations interested in the positioning and sustainability of their brands can contact Bodin.consulting, Deeptrue, Kingfluencers and Furrerhugi.