What Is A Pet Industry Superbrand?

What have British Airways and Winalot, Mercedes-Benz and Whiskas or even Google and KiteKat got in common? And what, for that matter is the difference between Pedigree dog food and The BBC?

Well, what they all have in common is that they feature in the latest Superbrands list of Top 500 UK Brand Names. What separates them are their positions relative to each other, in that list.

Each year 500 so-called Superbrands are chosen by the UK public. Brands do not pay or apply to be considered and the entire selection process is independently administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis.

A database of many thousands of leading brands is compiled from a wide range of sources - from which roughly 1,350 brands are short-listed.

A voluntary independent council of experts scores this short-list, with a rating from 1-10. The lowest scoring 50% is then eliminated from the list.

A nationally-representative group of over 2,200 UK consumers on the YouGov community panel vote on the surviving brands. Of these, the 500 highest ranking brands are given Superbrand status.

The current top five Superbrands are:

1. Google
2. Microsoft
3. Mercedes-Benz
4. BBC
5. British Airways

The top four pet industry brands (and there are only four listed in the Top 500 List), are all pet foods. They are:

180. Whiskas (Mars)
209. Pedigree (Mars)
443. Winalot (Nestle)
457. KiteKat (Mars)

The Superbrand Council offers us a definition of a Superbrand, it says:

"A Superbrand has established the finest reputation in its field. It offers customers significant emotional and tangible advantages over other brands, which (consciously or sub-consciously) customers want and recognise."

All Superbrands, says the organisation, must represent quality, reliability, and distinction.