Mobility trending at Best Brands Awards 2017 [5 Reading Tips]

Last week the 14th award ceremony for the best brands of the year took place. The new special category, focused on future mobility brands this time, grabbed the attention of everyone. However there was much curiosity for getting to know the consumers’ final say this time. Would there be unexpected newcomers? Would the German car industry’s power show up once again?

In order to decide on the winners, Gfk carried out a representative study that measures the strength of a brand against two criteria: market share and the degree of attractiveness of the brand according to the respondents (consumers). Having said that, what brands appealed the most to consumers?

The future of mobility is in the hands of…

Smart cars, electric cars and car-sharing are more than buzzwords. The automotive industry is stepping on the innovation pedal and bringing mobility to the next level, but it is not alone. A wide range of companies are also innovating and creating new services and business models to leverage the new possibilities that technology advancements give to revolutionise this sector.

In this sense, the nominees were not only traditional companies, but also software companies, services, apps and companies based on sharing models.

Unsurprisingly the winner was Tesla, that is delivering its visionary strategy effectively, since consumers associate Tesla with a brand that is able to face the mobility challenges with creativity and sustainable market orientation.

However, the sensation of the night was not the American automaker, but the free app Öffi, the leading app for the use of public transport in Germany and Europe, that has around five million users in 17 countries. One of the things that clearly stand out with this app is its rudimentary way of doing marketing campaigns. Unlike many competitors, who spend considerable sums of money in marketing campaigns, Öffi relys on word-of-mouth and referral marketing.

BMW overtake Porsche as best international German brand

Undoubtedly the car industry is one of the most distinguishing quality marks of Germany. To prove this, 4 out of 10 nominee brands were cars manufacturers (3 of them ranked in the top 4). This year BMW won their third best brand award at the expense of Porsche, the former winner.

It’s worth mentioning that the software giant SAP has reached the top 10 for the first time, being one of the newcomers together with Bayer in this category. With their cutting-edge enterprise e-commerce solutions, SAP contribute to promote a digital mentality across companies as well as to set the foundations for many success stories. To this respect, successful projects for clients like hagebau or mycare speak for themselves.

The reputation of German companies is measured not only in Germany, but also in other major exporting countries, namely the USA (for North America), China (for Asia), Brazil (for Latin America) and France (for Europe). Therefore, those companies with great export orientation were clearly favoured.

The other winners of the night were Duplo, as best growth product brand, followed by Perwoll and Miele. Finally, Coca-Cola received the award as best product brand.

The complete lists of nominees can be seen here.