Kodak still champ in store brand awareness

Discount Store News, Oct 12, 1987

Kodak Still Champ in Store Brand Awareness

Kodak, No. 1 in every category, a year ago, was No. 1 again in DSN's 1987 Top Brands Survey, although its margin was slimmer in some areas than a year ago.

Overall, however, Kodak had nearly double the mentions of Polaroid, its closest competitor, nearly three times the total number of mentions as a best performing brand than No. 3 Canon and nearly 10 times the support of Fuji in the No. 5 spot.

Top Five Brands Unchanged

Most of what changes there were in the rankings of photo and camera department brands were in the lower half of the top 10. The top five brands remained unchanged.

Keystone, the only new entry in the Top 10, knocked Eveready off the list and took over Vivitar's No. 9 spot. Vivitar slipped to No. 10.

Nikon, Pentax and 3M/ Scotch shuffled their positions.

At K mart, Kodak was a big winner, with more than nine out of 10 managers interviewed mentioning the Rochester, N.Y.-based giant.

However, Polaroid racked up its highest rating at K mart, and Fuji nearly tripled its overall rating over a year ago.

The highest rating received by Kodak was from Wal-Mart with 94 percent. Polaroid also drew its strongest response with seven of 10 Wal-Mart managers mentioning the brand. Canon and Minolta, both with relatively strong showings at K mart, fell off dramatically in mentions at Wal-Mart.

Fuji, dropped by Wal-Mart during its Buy American blitz, rated barely a mention. However, 3M/Scotch placed a strong third, partially offsetting its omission by K mart.

Kodak received the fewest mentions from Zayre, although the brand still finished a comfortable first. Polaroid also had a tough time on its home turf, rating only one-half of Zayre's mentions. Minolta and Vivitar, on the other hand, both made strong showings, rating third and fourth overall at Zayre.

The two top brands overall did not receive as many mentions from upscale discounters. Polaroid fell to the third ranking while Canon finished second. Minolta was stronger among upscale discounters than conventional discounters, as was Nikon, both aided by support from Target.

Regionally, Kodak was weakest in the Northeast but still garnered mentions from eight of 10 store managers there. Canon performed well above its national average in the Northeast, with about one-third of respondents citing the brand. Fuji received little mention from Northeastern discounters.

The West was also a bit soft on Kodak, saving its laurels for Minolta, Fuji and Pentax, all of which performed well above their national averages. Vivitar and 3M/Scotch were not mentioned by any Western discounters.

According to the responses, Polaroid is at its most popular in the South, with over half of respondents mentioning the popular instant camera product. Other top 10 members received roughly national level support in the Southern region.

Kodak ruled the North Central region, with nearly nine out of every 10 responses citing the company. Canon, Minolta, Fuji and Vivitar also did better than their national averages.

Managers seemed unable to explain Kodak's overall brand strength. When asked about a variety of potential reasons for its performance, managers consistently rated at least two of the other top brands as better in any given category. For example, while many who chose Kodak cited its national brand posture as a reason, even more managers cited Polaroid's and Minolta's brand status as important to those companies.

Furthermore, a higher percentage of respondents cited good prices as a reason for the brand strength of Minolta than Kodak.

Both Polaroid and Canon were perceived as better advertisers and all three had higher ratings from managers on the question of quality. However, Kodak beat out the others in name recognition.

One of the most surprising results of the survey is that while Kodak lost ground very slightly overall, the next three most popular brands lost even more ground to the leader. Polaroid's rating dropped by nearly one-third among conventional discounters, while Canon and Minolta declined significantly across the board. Fuji and Nikon registered marginal gains, but everyone else in the top 10 lost ground.

Overall, the top-rated brands lost considerable ground, from a cumulative 277 percentage points in 1986 to 220 cumulative points in 1987, and no one outside the top 10 made up any of the slack. That may indicate some level of brand erosion in the marketplace.

A sampling of manager comments indicates that some, at least, have strong feelings about a few brands.

About Fuji, one manager said, "The clarity of Fuji film is much better than others and the price is very competitive.'

Another manager called Kodak "a darn good company' and added, "The name of the company says quality.'

Polaroid was lauded for being "the only company with instant film, which people like.'

Vivitar was cited for its "real nice packaging and travel kit.'

In growth for the past year, managers generally felt that the number of brand names in their stores had not grown. Kodak was a strong performer in number of mentions by both those who felt there had been growth and those who didn't. Over eight of 10 in both categories listed Kodak as a top performing brand.