Shopee ranked best brand in MY, PROTON and Maggi among list of YouGov improvers

Shopee has claimed the throne as Malaysia's best brand in 2020 with a score of 62.9. According to the YouGov Best Brands list, this was aided by governmental recommendations to stay at home during the pandemic, as well as shopping malls closing during the Movement Control Order earlier this year.

Last month, the eCommerce platform tied up with CapitaLand to turn the latter's IMM outlet mall into Shopee's first virtual shopping mall, offering retailers with more online marketing opportunities that will benefit in-store sales at IMM through enhanced branding under one roof. A landing page will feature IMM's most popular stores and discounts on Shopee Singapore's and Malaysia's websites. Meanwhile, IMM retailers which are authorised brand distributors in Malaysia will be given support to set up their storefront on Shopee Malaysia.

WhatsApp, which previously held the title of the healthiest brand in Malaysia for two consecutive years, fell to second place with a score of 56.1. Meanwhile, Milo clinched third place with a score of 55.7. Other F&B brands that also fared well in the top 10 were McDonald's (49.6) and KFC (45.7) which were fifth and ninth respectively. Meanwhile, this year's list also saw new entrants such as Nescafe and KitKat.

Following the trend of consumers moving indoors and spending more time online, digital brands have also performed well this year. YouTube came in fourth (51.5) while Facebook was ranked eighth (46.3) by YouGov.

The rankings are based on the index score from YouGov BrandIndex, which constantly measures overall brand health. The score takes into account consumers’ perception of a brand’s overall quality, value, impression, reputation, satisfaction and whether consumers would recommend the brand to others.

At the same time, the YouGov BrandIndex also revealed that KFC was the most improved brand with a 12.3 increase in score. Shopee came in second with a 11.4 increase. Meanwhile, homegrown brands were also featured prominently in the improvers list for 2020. According to YouGov, Touch 'n Go Pay was ranked third with a 10.5 improvement in score followed by Maggi and Mie Sedaap. PROTON, Astro and Bank Simpanan Nasional also made the list.

YouGov APAC's head of data products, Ervin Ha, said this year's annual rankings highlight the impact the pandemic has had on consumer brand perceptions.

"While most industries were hit badly in 2020, eCommerce platforms such as Shopee have thrived with consumers being stuck at home and itching to spend money. Being stuck at home has also gotten Malaysians hungry, with fast food chains such as McDonald's and KFC as well as Maggi performing well," he added. The rankings for Malaysia were drawn from interviews conducted between October 2019 and September 2020. Each day consumers were asked their view on 417 brands in Malaysia.

Meanwhile globally, tech brands dominated YouGov's annual global best brands ranking, with Google clinching the top spot. This was followed by WhatsApp, YouTube, Samsung and Amazon. The only non-tech-related brands in the top 10 are Shopee at eighth, IKEA at ninth and Nike at 10th.

Enjoyed what you have read? Follow us on Instagram for the latest updates in Southeast Asia's marketing and advertising space!

Related articles:
Shopee ranked most positively discussed brand in Malaysia, finds YouGov
Shopee ranked highest advocated brand in Malaysia for second year, finds YouGov
CapitaLand and Shopee turn IMM into virtual mall amidst plan to help retailers digitalise
Why Shopee boldly pushed ahead with a retail pop-up despite low footfall in malls
Malaysian and digital brands dominate YouGov BrandIndex ranking