The most recent survey sees Sony regain strength to tie with Heinz on 19%. But whereas Heinz holds equal favour among the young and the old, male and female, social grades and regions, Sony is particularly popular among men and the 16- to 29-year-old age group.
Since market research firm Martin Hamblin GfK began its survey began in September 2002, Heinz has almost consistently been the best-remembered brand in the UK.
In a nationally representative poll, 1,000 adults were asked to name five brands of any products or services they can think of. Heinz is nearly always top of the charts and in February achieved pole position for the second consecutive time.
Sony has always been close behind and when the survey was carried out in January last year it beat Heinz to the top with 21% of people mentioning the brand.
In the top 20 mentioned brands, Panasonic moves up six places from number 12 last time to six and a rejuvenated Marks & Spencer is up two percentage points and five places from number 20 to 15.
Ariel and Cadbury's are knocked off the Top 20 by Nike and Adidas on 5%, marking the first time since September 2002 that sports brands have made it into the top 20. Hoover is the highest climber, up six places from 15 to number nine.
In FMCG alone, Heinz is quite a way ahead of all other FMCG brands. Persil is still the most recalled washing powder brand on 9% and although the brand dropped by over 3% in February it still has much higher recall than Ariel on 4%. Coca-Cola receives a lower than expected result of 6%.
Sony is by far the most highly recalled brand in the electrical category. Panasonic moves slightly in front of Hotpoint but these brands are closely followed by Hoover, Philips and Toshiba.
Among the retail brands Tesco is still top of the poll for most-recalled retail brand. However Asda, which currently holds second place in the supermarket share ratings, reached only fourth position as a recalled brand. Sainsbury's dropped two percentage points from 9% in May 2003 to 7% in February 2004.
Best remembered brands February 2004
1 Heinz (19%)
1 Sony (19%)
3 Kellogg鈥檚 (16%)
4 Tesco (11%)
5 Persil (9%)
6 Panasonic (8%)
6 Hotpoint (8%)
8 BT (7%)
8 Hoover (7%)
8 Sainsbury鈥檚 (7%)
8 Nescafe (7%)
12 Coca-Cola (6%)
12 Ford (6%)
12 Phillips (6%)
12 Marks & Spencer (6%)
16 Toshiba (5%)
16 Fairy (5%)
16 Nike (5%)
16 Asda (5%)
20 Adidas (4%)
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