Magazine: MagyarBrands: Our best brands

MagyarBrands is a programme that evaluates and presents Hungary’s best brands. This year the best brands with a Hungarian connection were picked for the sixth time by a jury of experts. MagyarBrands communicates the recognition and the trust of consumers to brands, it represents real value as the trademark can play a key role in shopper decision making. Hungary needs a large number of good and vital Hungarian brands. The unique MagyarBrands programme plays an important role in selecting these. We asked the members of the MagyarBrands jury about how they reached their decision.//

The challenge has been the same for 5 years: to select the best brands from the several-thousand-item trademark database of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office. When evaluating MagyarBrands entries, my focus is on the strength of the relationship between the given brand and its buyers, and on the value creating potential of the brand. What matters today isn’t what brands say about themselves, but what consumers say about them. Becoming one of the MagyarBrands can help to acquire moral support and new business opportunities. //

When evaluating entries in the MagyarBrands programme, I focus on their long-term reliability, but at the same time I am also happy to reward the conquest of young brands. In my daily work I sense growing demand from consumers for quality Hungarian products and luckily there are more and more of these in shops. Winner products should definitely communicate the recognition as from two similar goods the majority of consumers purchase the Hungarian product! //

I am so happy to see that Hungarian brands are communicating more and more consciously and skilfully. They have become a part of our culture, a collective point of reference. The MagyarBrands programme contributes to brands communicating more and getting in touch with consumers more often. Public relations create the trust in a product and guard a brand’s prestige. Since I work in PR, I judge a brand based on how consciously and well it communicates – besides its quality, of course. //

I make great efforts not to give points based only on my own preconceptions, I am trying to rely on all the information available to me. A very important factor is the dynamism of the brand, its presence in the communication space. Compared with the situation 5 years ago, brands have become more mature and complex. It is a great challenge for them to stay at the level they have reached. There are two things MagyarBrand winners have in common: the conscious work behind them and the need for brand building. They are all competitive as well; I am convinced that sooner or later each brand needs to reach a stage where they want to compete for this prize. //

A brand can only be called a real brand if it is well-known and acknowledged. This can only happen if consumers become aware of a quality product’s existence, thanks to brand building work – advertisements and PR activities. I think it is enough to mention how a new Apple product is introduced to the market. It is needless to say that all of this only works if the product behind the campaign is excellent. //

I am convinced that the MagyarBrands jury faces a much more difficult task now than at the beginning of the programme. Another change from the early days is that today it is nigh impossible to evaluate a brand’s prestige objectively if we don’t take a look at what they are doing on the website or in social media. Often we even have to decide that from competing brands which is better at using tools such as contact or experience marketing. //

Up-and-coming brands can profit a lot in their brand building from the use of the internet, where target groups can be reached with great precision and very quickly. However, communication is so fast these days that shoppers can ‘punish’ a brand for its mistakes – rightfully or not – in no time. According to an Aon survey, conducted with the participation of 1,500 company executives, the biggest blow a brand can suffer is if its reputation is damaged. The fast spreading of mobile communication requires lots of new and quickly changing knowledge from those who want to earn the MagyarBrands recognition. //

The results of various surveys show that shoppers give priority to Hungarian brands, therefore seeing the MagyarBrands logo on products can be of great help to them in deciding which one to put in their basket. Evaluation is based on thorough research work and experts rely on various indicators when assessing the entries. I think if MagyarBrands will remain able to help consumers and up-and-coming brands, giving positive feedback on building national brands, then it will retain its place in Hungary’s economic life. //