The 60 Top UK superbrand websites

Superbrands is a guide to some of the best-known brands in the UK, featuring household names from Andrex to Walkers Crisps, and Coca-Cola to Sellotape.

The challenge for digital consultancy BrandNet.co.uk, in compiling the latest in Marketing Week’s series of Internet league tables, was to rank 60 brands according to the quality of their Web propositions.

By rating websites on location, navigation, content, brand proposition and effectiveness, BrandNet was able to draw up a league table showing how well some of the best-known brands in the UK and the world have translated their appeal onto the Net. Since the official Superbrands guide lists brands in alphabetical order only, it was also a good way of ranking seemingly-incomparable products.

Nestl was heavily criticised for the poor layout, design and navigation of its KitKat site, which appears near the bottom of the table. The company’s other superbrands, Polo and Smarties, were not included in the table at all as they had no websites. Nestl wasn’t the only big-name offender – UDV’s superbrands, Bell’s and Gordon’s, were excluded for the same reason.

Spencer Wright, managing director of BrandNet.co.uk, says: “Nestl in general has got it wrong. It might be the UK’s favourite chocolate but you’d need a long break to look at the website properly.

“There are games, which you would associate with work breaks, but they’re not very imaginative, just things like Space Invaders. Branded games or a link to something like Freeloader.com would be much more innovative and involve the user.”

By contrast, the best sites are the ones which are most closely tied in with their offline counterparts. The Sun was top of the league, largely because its site is completely attuned to the newspaper’s target audience. It includes features which have proved to be winners with the paper’s traditional offline readership, including a direct link to Coral’s betting website for horseracing aficionados, and a Page 3 section. BrandNet believes Sun readers would no longer need to buy the paper if they looked at the website every day.

Thesun.co.uk compares very favourably to the BBC’s website. Although the latter probably has the most comprehensive news content on the Web, it is let down by difficult navigation and a lack of inspiring or vibrant design as well as its poor search facilities.

Tesco.co.uk was, unsurprisingly, the best of the supermarket chains, ranked fourth. It has long trumpeted itself as the best online grocery store in Europe, if not the world. By contrast Marks & Spencer continues its depressing trend of appearing low down in these tables; this time it is ranked 41st. The site suffers from poor design and unreliable search facilities. However, BrandNet does offer some encouragement, saying that M&S has plenty of room for improvement.

Of the automotive superbrands, only Audi appears in the top ten – 17 places above BMW – in spite of some glitches on the ordering and used-car value calculator features.

Some products which would typically have on-pack promotions or incentives offline suffer from a lack of similar marketing tactics on their websites. For example Budweiser.co.uk, which was launched last year for the first time as a UK site, offers a range of Budweiser merchandise for sale and incorporates the famous “Whassup?” campaign, but doesn’t back up this excellent branding with competitions or giveaways.

One of the most disappointing sites is McVitie’s, which has a lot of consumer support from parent company United Biscuits, but the average customer is unlikely to find it as it falls under the UB domain rather than the brand name – a major error for any site.

There are other glaring errors, such as Pirelli’s failure to include its calendar, which is surely what many people would associate the brand with and access the website to look at.

Many companies have greatly improved their websites over the past 12 months and are learning to use them to add value to the brand rather than simply seeing them as a “shop window” displaying the products available.

Wright adds: “Compared with last year, most sites have improved in terms of communicating the high street brand online. Similarly, there is more promoting awareness of the website, for example by displaying the domain name in offline ads to attract consumers online.”

Simple design changes can vastly improve a site. BT.com is an example of a poorly-designed website complete with flashing logo, but many brands have cleaned up their sites’ structures, with a menu down the left or at the top of the screen.

The most improved site was offered by holiday giant Thomas Cook, whose online proposition was relaunched last year, in a move which has resulted in increased sales, demonstrating the benefits of updating a website regularly.

If you can’t realistically sell a brand online, for example Johnson’s Baby Products, the next-most-important thing is to keep the site up to date. Content in general has become more structured and user-friendly. Huge chunks of text have been reduced to 50-word summaries with links to the main body of content.

The key to a successful superbrand website is to have content which provides information about the product while also involving the user in a way which will build value to the brand. Superbrand owners seem to be slowly getting used to the idea that the Internet can be used to market even the best-known products to increase sales further.

: superbrand.com

The term “superbrand” was developed following research, conducted by Infratest Burke, into whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for branded products. The Superbrands Council, which oversees the research published in the Superbrands handbook, lists BMP DDB chairman Chris Powell, Virgin Group corporate affairs director Will Whitehorn and Wally Olins, founder of brand consultancy Wolff Olins, among its members.

After extensive research the panel devised this definition of a superbrand: a brand which offers consumers significant emotional and/or physical advantages over its competitors; advantages which (consciously or subconsciously) consumers want, recognise, and are willing to pay a premium for.

Shoppers claim that they are willing to pay a 32 per cent premium for typical branded goods, while significant cuts in the price of own-label equivalents are needed to motivate a switch. Around 40 per cent of respondents would not switch from their favourite brands, whatever the price.

Brand equity is of major importance in maintaining market leadership. Consumers said they were more than twice as likely to buy Sony than the next-most-popular competitive brand, and almost three times as likely to buy McVitie’s’ chocolate biscuits than its main competitor.

In an interesting exercise to test the value of superbrands, respondents were asked to rank well-known personalities, including Eric Cantona, Pamela Anderson and Tony Blair in order of preference as guests at their own wedding. The Andrex puppy was then added – and came top of the list.

Pos Brand WebSite Score Comment 1 The Sun www.thesun.co.uk 83.2 Looks and feels like The Sun. User incentives, online betting. Good content details 2 Thomas Cook www.thomascook.co.uk 83.0 Well-branded with late breaks, e-mail updates and links to non-competitive sites 3 Virgin Atlantic www.virgin-atlantic.com 82.2 A good site that provides all the information and services customers would expect 4 Tesco www.tesco.co.uk 79.2 Well laid out site. Streamlined secure purchasing enhances brand authority 5 Audi www.audi.co.uk 77.0 Good company links and visuals. Used car value calculator an innovative feature 6 Persil www.persil.co.uk 75.3 Site explains product effectively. Good branding and uses voucher incentives 7 Avis www.avis.com 75.0 Good user incentives and promotional features. Booking facility confusing 8 Michelin www.michelin.co.uk 74.0 Well-branded with good links to information, but no dealer finder or online shop 9 Halifax www.halifax.co.uk 73.0 Simple navigation with online banking and prize draw. Somewhat impersonal 10 Nikon www.nikon.co.uk 72.1 Well-branded with links to online purchasing and dealers. Press releases online 11 Sony www.sony.com 72.0 US-focused site with worldwide links. Good music, video, entertainment content 12 BBC www.bbc.co.uk 71.5 Large amounts of information. Good links but difficult to navigate. Some glitches 13 Yellow Pages www.yellowpages.com 71.0 Well-branded, with overview of products. Search facility not postcode specific 14= Virgin www.virgin.com 69.7 A directory to the Virgin companies. Navigation easy, Virgin Cars the best site 14= Visa www.visa.com 69.7 Uninspiring, but logical and well-planned. Links, promotions and ATM Finder 16 Hagen-Dazs www.haagen-dazs.co.uk 69.4 Good links and FAQ but some sections are superfluous and uninteresting 17 Save the Children www.savethechildren.org.uk 69.1 Easy to navigate, but slow to download. Informative, with online subscription 18 Wedgwood www.wedgwood.com 68.7 Up-to-date magazine with competitions and links. Electronic postcard feature 19 Coca-Cola www.coca-cola.co.uk 67.7 Well-branded UK site, with QXL auction tie-in. Lacks audio/video and links 20 Club Med www.clubmed.com 67.1 Online deals and good listings, but difficult to navigate and poor data capture 21 Interflora www.interflora.co.uk 67.0 Innovative reminder feature and easy to use, but some features need debugging 22 BMW www.bmw.com 66.9 International site with good national links. Pricing available in 41 countries 23 American Express www.americanexpress.co.uk 65.4 Very interactive: set up accounts, view accounts, cardholder incentives online 24 Direct Line www.directline.co.uk 65.0 Good personal features: car insurance and mortgage calculator. Can save quotes 25 Walkers www.walkers.co.uk 64.7 Good product information. Gary Lineker featured heavily. Educational tie-ins 26 Reebok www.reebok.co.uk 64.6 Not as good as the international site. Plenty of product information, few features 27= Budweiser www.budweiser.co.uk 64.0 Well-branded, incorporates current ad campaign. Lots of features and merchandise 27= DHL www.dhl.co.uk 64.0 Uninteresting but good interactivity: tariff calculator and online tracking facility 29 Heinz www.heinz.co.uk 63.1 Simple and up-to-date site. Extensive product info and history but poor visually 30= Adidas www.adidas.co.uk 63.0 Good interactive training feature, but poorly updated and some links are broken 30= Manchester United www.manutd.com 63.0 Online purchasing with special offers. Up-to-date news features and match tracker 30= Mothercare www.mothercare.com 63.0 Extensive data capture and online purchasing. Good listings and finance sections 33 BT www.bt.com 62.1 Uninspiring home page covers good billing and tariff information. Sponsorship links 34 Andrex www.andrexpuppy.co.uk 61.4 Difficult to find, but features good data capture, links and promotional tie-ins 35 First Direct www.firstdirect.co.uk 61.0 Simple to use with good product info, but account-opening feature contains bugs 36 Hamleys www.hamleys.co.uk 60.0 Clever search facility, very functional site, but fails to take advantage of the brand 37 Carlsberg www.carlsberg.co.uk 59.9 Well-branded site with good promotions and links, but menu can be difficult to read 38 MINI www.mini.co.uk 59.5 Good use of Flash, but downloads are PC-specific. Only mentions new MINI 39 Mot et Chandon www.moet.com 57.8 Good use of sound and visuals, and Mot-related information. No online purchasing 40 Marks & Spencer www.marksandspencer.co.uk 57.7 A poorly-designed site with an unreliable search engine. Some online incentives 41 Boddingtons www.boddingtons.co.uk 57.6 Good brand history and presentation, but out-of-date incentives and poor audio 42 Sellotape www.sellotape.co.uk 56.3 Simple navigation and worldwide contact details. Good product information 43 Abbey National www.abbeynational.co.uk 56.2 Lots of data capture, but separate form for each product. Share-dealing competition 44= Heineken www.heineken.com 56.0 Well-branded but limited content. Links to local sites with better targeting 44= Samsonite www.samsonite-europe.com 56.0 Simple navigation with effective search facility. Lacks links to external sites 46 Johnson’s Baby www.yourbaby.com 55.5 Monthly magazine for parents is authoritative and makes good use of imagery 47 The National Lottery www.national-lottery.co.uk 55.0 Comprehensive product and Good Cause information, but not very interactive 48 Lucozade www.lucozade.co.uk 54.6 Easy to find site, with download features, but slow and lacks instructions 49 Philishave www.philishave.com 53.5 Good product information but poorly-branded and the catalogue is unimaginative 50 Gillette www.gillette.com 53.1 Very US-oriented, lots of investor information but little focus on the products 51 Pirelli www.pirelli.co.uk 53.0 A disappointing site with erratic navigation and at least one coding error 52 Tampax www.tampax.com 52.3 Interactive, good link to teen site beinggirl.com. Branding could be improved. 53 KitKat www.kitkat.co.uk 52.0 Well-branded interface but difficult to read. Awkward navigation. Win money online 54 Macleans www.macleans.co.uk 49.5 Good product, dental information and links to other SKB sites. Little data capture 55 Perrier www.perrier.com 46.0 Navigation poor and branding weak. No mention of Comedy Awards sponsorship 56 McDonald’s www.mcdonalds.co.uk 40.2 Terrible site. Poor branding, limited content, no incentives and not up-to-date 57 Fosters www.fosters.co.uk 40.0 Good branding but unexciting and incomplete. Slow downloads and there are bugs 58 McVitie’s www.unitedbiscuits.co.uk 37.0 Little specific information about McVitie’s. Good customer services information 59 Wilkinson Sword www.wilkson-sword.co.uk 36.0 Personal Fitness Plan interesting but most features are text-heavy and out-of-date 60 Stella Artois www.stellascreen.co.uk 32.0 Film site to tie in with sponsorship, but lacks branding or mentions of other tie-ins

: methodology

Digital consultancy BrandNet.co.uk has developed the Internet Strategy Evaluation Tool (iSET), which scores websites on five categories:

Location: Does the site have a logical address that is visible on the product’s packaging and in ads? Is it known by top search engines and the brand customer careline? If you’re interested in Guinness or Coke, can you find the brand website easily?

Navigation: Can you move around the site without it crashing your computer or being frustratingly slow?

Content: Is it consistent with the brand’s offline, above-the-line marketing message?

Brand proposition: Are the colours and typefaces the same as on the brand packaging?

Effectiveness: Are there good-enough reasons to visit the site? Is it an interactive medium rather than just a place to showcase the latest ad campaign?

BrandNet tested websites for the UK superbrands, based on the Superbrands book published in 1998 by Creative & Commercial. The websites are revisited and re-evaluated on a regular basis.

: top ten websites

<b>No 1 The Sun </b> Finding the site 16.9 Navigation 16.5 Content 16.0 Delivery of Proposition 17.8 Memorability 16.0

No 1 The Sun

Excellently targeted at readers, who wouldn’t need to buy the paper if they visited the site. Features extensions of popular sections such as Page 3 and a link to a betting website.

<b>No 2 Thomas Cook </b> Finding the site 19.0 Navigation 16.0 Content 17.3 Delivery of Proposition 14.3 Memorability 16.4

No 2 Thomas Cook

One of the most-improved sites of the last year. A relaunch with extra customer support has led to a massive increase in usage.

<b>No 3 Virgin Atlantic </b> Finding the site 19.0 Navigation 14.3 Content 17.0 Delivery of Proposition 16.6 Memorability 15.3

No 3 Virgin Atlantic

Better than rival flight-booking sites, the online proposition is in line with the company’s offline ads, which inspires customers to buy on the Web. Easy to use, with a full choice of prices and information on availability.

<b>No 4 Tesco </b> Finding the site 15.7 Navigation 15.6 Content 17.3 Delivery of Proposition 15.3 Memorability 15.3

No 4 Tesco

The best of the supermarkets’ offerings, but does have downsides. There are no incentives to shop online, and in-store categories are quite poorly defined, meaning shoppers may have to trawl through several sections.

<b>No 5 Audi </b> Finding the site 18.0 Navigation 16.0 Content 15.4 Delivery of Proposition 14.6 Memorability 13.0

No 5 Audi

New to the list, but much better than BMW’s offering. Features include online ordering and test-drive facilities and the opportunity to design your own car. A calculator tells the motorist what their car is worth and the site includes a link to Audi’s customer call-centre.

<b>No 6 Persil </b> Finding the site 16.6 Navigation 15.3 Content 16.0 Delivery of Proposition 13.4 Memorability 14.0

No 6 Persil

The site benefits from having user incentives and high-profile branding of Persil products, but lacks links to other Unilever lines.

<b>No 7 Avis </b> Finding the site 17.0 Navigation 12.0 Content 16.0 Delivery of Proposition 14.0 Memorability 16.0

No 7 Avis

The site is let down by having an international booking system which only features customer pick-ups from two places in London. Users can also book without credit card details, which could leave the site open to abuse.

<b>No 8 Michelin </b> Finding the site 18.5 Navigation 12.5 Content 13.0 Delivery of Proposition 16.0 Memorability 14.0

No 8 Michelin

Makes much better use of the Internet than rival Pirelli, which doesn’t even feature its famous calendar. Michelin includes its reference guides and maps and has a user-friendly travel planner.

<b>No 9 Halifax </b> Finding the site 18.8 Navigation 14.6 Content 13.7 Delivery of Proposition 13.6 Memorability 12.3

No 9 Halifax

The simplest online banking service. Very easy to navigate, but doesn’t give you the personal feel of the offline brand campaigns.

<b>No 10 Nikon </b> Finding the site 18.0 Navigation 10.4 Content 14.0 Delivery of Proposition 15.3 Memorability 14.4

No 10 Nikon

Lots of information and advice for professionals and amateurs, but users could expect to see more photography from competitions.

– Thomascook.com is a good example of a site which has successfully relaunched. Not only was it second in the superbrands league table – it is also the UK’s most popular travel agent, according to Nielsen NetRatings, which provides Internet audience measures.

At a time when sites such as Travelchest and uTravel have fallen by the wayside, Thomas Cook’s online venture is booming.

The research shows the site had a 700 per cent increase in the first week of January compared to the same period in 1999. The sub-sites have been redesigned, focusing on the different needs of UK holidaymakers and a new flights service has been launched.

The site has also been nominated for a Visa “Bricks 2 Clicks” e-tailer award. Andrew Windsor, the site’s managing director, says: “We’re committed to ensuring our online booking experience is as intuitive, informative and exciting as possible for travellers.”

For more information on BrandNet, visit their website at http://www.brandnet.co.uk