4 August 2017

New Research Finds Brands Becoming Too London-Focused

Brands are becoming too London-centric and need to reach out to connect with people in communities across the UK, new research has found.

Trinity Mirror has launched a new brand relevance index, allowing advertisers to measure how well their brand is connecting with people inside and outside London.  

Recent Trinity Mirror research has found that political events of the past year have seen a shift in the nation’s mindset, which is having a profound impact on brands and advertisers in their bid to stay relevant – particularly outside London.

The new index has launched with an analysis of 56 industry leading consumer brands. Two thousand people were asked a range of questions about how relevant brands are to them in their local area, carried out by BDRC Continental.

The findings:

  • Brands face a significant challenge to re-connect with consumers outside London – 46 of the 56 brands have a negative relevance score;
  • Based on an average of the 56 brands, people outside London were:
    • Eleven per cent more likely than people living in London to say brands are out of touch with people in their local area;
    • Twenty-five per cent more likely than people living in London to say brands don’t understand people in their local area;
    • Twenty-one per cent more likely than people living in London to say brands don’t aim it’s advertising at people in their local area.
  • When asked whether or not they would care if the particular brand exists, 48 of the 56 brands scored 40 per cent or more for ‘no’. 

On a brand level, a top three supermarket scored -26 whereas its competitor the Co-op scored +9.  A high street bank scored -24 whereas the Yorkshire Building Society scored +5.  And a major utilities brand scored -17, whereas its competitor SSE scored +1.

Andrew Tenzer, Trinity Mirror head of group insight, said; “Although there has been much talk of a London bubble, by looking at a brand level this index really helps us to understand the severity of the situation.

“Now more than ever brands need to ensure they are connecting with people, especially outside London.

“Our new relevance index will help brands analyse how well positioned they are across the country, and be able to benchmark themselves against their competitors.”

For the index, the relevance score is calculated on a number of metrics related to how well consumers perceive each brand to connect with people in their local area.

The score for the brand inside London is subtracted from the score outside London, to create the brands overall score of relevance.

  • A score of zero implies the brand is connecting just as well with people outside London as those inside London;
  • A positive score implies the brand is connecting more with people outside London than inside London;
  • A negative score implies the brand is connecting more with people inside London than outside London.