Brand building with business awards

By: Trademagazin editor Date: 2022. 11. 17. 10:04

Brand building is a long process, where the brand has to prove its credibility again and again, guaranteeing high quality and strengthening customer trust in the brand at the same time.

An overview of Hungary’s leading brands

One of the best PR tools to do this is communicating the positive characteristics of the brand via a prestigious business award. This helps to stand out from the crowd, become a success story and can even motivate employees.

Superbrands, the difference-maker

The Superbrands award is a decision-reinforcing tool, which instantly positions the brand on the top shelf in the heads of consumers – without the brand having to say itself that it is one of the best. It was in the United Kingdom that the Brand Council has established the Superbrands Programme, which is already present in more than 90 countries. In Hungary the Superbrands award launched in 2004, and 5 years later the Business Superbrands award followed, honouring the best B2B brands. The winners are selected based on the Bisnode database, with a jury of experts recommending a list from which the best brands are picked, using financial and marketing criteria.

Superbrands Hungary has been rating great brands for nearly two decades that stand out from the competition by their brand building activity. Congratulation goes to them at the awards ceremony every year,

Independent council of experts do the rating

Every year the two Superbrands programmes rate a growing number of brands. With consumer brands, there is also a survey measuring how well-known and popular the given brand is. As for business brands, the companies undergo a kind of financial evaluation too. In Hungary more than 40 experts take part in the work of the Superbrands Programme, and rate the brands which make it through the screening process. Market research results prove that 80% of consumers associate positive statements with Superbrands, most often trust and quality.

The solution

Although defining brand equity can never be an exact science, consumers and business decision-makers will always need practical information on what people think about their brands. As we are living in hard times once again, for brand owners it is definitely worth choosing progressive solutions, such as the integration of winning the Superbrands award into their marketing communication. //

Those who decided

Loyalty vs. routine

Dr. János Serényi
owner, MD
Értéktrend Consulting

The current economic recession forces numerous companies to review their offering and how the products are communicated. An executive I know – he is the head of a company that won the Superbrands several times in the past – has told me: “It hurts me to say this, but it is true. We were wrong to think that big groups of consumers kept buying our products out of brand loyalty. Truth is that many of them only did this routinely.” Today, when consumers have less and less money to spend, those brands will end up in the baskets of shoppers that can adapt to the changing situations of their owners the best. It is great to see many of these among that this year’s Superbrands winners.//

Adapting to the changes

Dr. Totth Gedeon
director of institute, faculty head, college professor
Budapest Business School

Today brands are expected to take social responsibility, to be environmentally conscious and to communicate these things intensely. If they want to remain competitive, they must live up to these expectations in a way that they can also protect their business interests. Messages started focusing more on social responsibility already during the pandemic, telling how the companies behind the brands are trying to help, and market positioning also adapted to this change. Superbrands are connected by that extra effort they put into their brand building work.

Sustainability and business interests

Dr. Ákos Kozák
business affairs director
Equilibrium Institute Budapest

It is needless to say that we can’t separate sustainability considerations and business interests. A company works in any ecosystem where (usually) others make the rules, but it is the firm that is responsible for complying with them. The steps taken to fight climate change or the solutions to social problems can only work if they are in balance with the firm’s financial results. When rating the Superbrands entries, I gave a bigger weight to sustainability factors than in the past. I don’t think that emotion-based buying decisions will completely disappear, but it is quite likely that many shoppers will make decisions forced by the conditions. Behind the winner brands, there is sometimes decades-long brand building work.//

Most consumer decisions are emotion-based

Andrea Duca
managing partner
HD Group

Several research results have indicated that the majority of consumer decisions are emotion-based, even if we pretend them to be rational. This is good news for those companies which can’t or don’t want to compete in price, but offer high quality and communicate professionally. Where I see great changes is employer brand communication, which now focuses more on the financial stability of the company, and not only on the good salaries they are offering. Superbrands is well-known enough among consumers to associate it with quality and reliability, and it definitely stands for value and creates a competitive edge. //

The art of brand building

Zsuzsanna Hermann
owner-editor in chief
Trade magazin

Perhaps brand building is now harder than ever before, as there is a recession and people feel that their financial situation is uncertain. Consumer values have also transformed, today a brand can only build trust if it pays attention to many different things, and values need to be communicated cautiously. Because of my personal value preferences, I pay special attention to environmentally friendly solutions, but I am also impressed by unusual, creative ideas.//

“B” brands will suffer

Zoltán Fekete
secretary general
Branded Goods Association Hungary

In the present difficult economic situation, the market is likely to split up: strong brands will do everything they can to retain their positions, but “first price” products such as private labels are expected to produce a much more robust growth. Stuck between them will be the so-called “B” brands, suffering from the fact that they must compete in price with the latter and in quality with the former. I hope that in the difficult years that are ahead of us, Superbrands will continue to be an efficient tool for preserving consumer and business trust. This is why I evaluated the entries with business, social and sustainability considerations in mind. //

Problem-sensitivity and ethical solutions

Csilla Kövesdi
head of communications
GE Gas Power

The coronavirus pandemic increased the importance of ethical business conduct: most shoppers are glad to buy the products of companies that prioritise the safety of customers and employees. Brands need to react to the topics people care about, social issues, environmental problems, etc. – this is one of the things I concentrated on when rating the brands. The best brands have a clear focus, they have their own mission, know their target group and competitors, can communicate their core values and build their image consistently. //

A stable point

Zsófia Lakatos
managing director
Emerald Public Relations

Slowly we are getting used to the fact that our life is like a rollercoaster ride, going from one crisis to another. We are living in difficult times, and we are looking for stable points to help us cope with the hardships. These can be anything we know and trust – and this is the reason why Superbrands is probably more important now than ever before: the brands that earn this recognition can serve as a safe haven in rough seas. Brands must do their best to retain or win consumer trust. When evaluating, for me the number one factor is whether consumers can trust the given brand.//

Interdependence increases when there is a recession

Ibolya Szabó
corporate affairs director
Dreher Breweries

Trust, transparency, value creation, personal and empathic communication – brands need to be evaluated in a complex fashion. Brands have to be able to create value, in a business, social and environmental sense alike. When there is a crisis, we depend on each other much more than at other times. This is the reason why fair business conduct and social sensitivity from brands is becoming more important than ever before. A good brand strategy is for the medium and long term, but the plans need to be fine-tuned when conditions change. I think that Superbrands winners are similar in the sense that they preserve their value and consumers trust them. //