‘M&S is top family brand’

The retailer appears to have shed its “parent brand” status and moved up from six in the study.

The improvement was driven by its first standalone children’s clothing ad campaign earlier this year including a partnership with ITV and Britain’s Got Talent to find children to star in ads and a partnership with The X-Factor.

John Lewis has moved into the Top 10 for the first time on the back of its advertising strategy that has focussed on John Lewis’ place in family lives throughout generations.

Innocent’s heavily advertised move into healthy meals and children’s food helped it climb 8 spots to 5th.

The survey also found that McDonald’s efforts to reposition itself as a family brand by improving its restaurants and healthy food offering has helped the brand move up 20 places to 50.

Tesco has slipped seven places to 24th and is now the lowest ranked of the major supermarkets.

British Airways recent rebranding campaign “harking back to the good old days” has helped the carrier become the UK’s favourite family airline, beating Virgin for the first time. It jumped 23 places to 37th while budget airlines RyanAir and EasyJet languish at 106th and 99th place respectively.

The News International scandal appears to have had an affect on both the tabloids and broadsheets as The Sun and The Express fell 20 and 10 places to 103rd and 105th respectively while the Financial Times moved up 40 places to 63rd.

“As incomes are stretched, we’re falling back on people and brands that we trust. The basic values that people might be looking for are security, comfort and feeling like part of the family,” says Steve Hastings, planning partner at Isobel.

The FamilyBrands study was conducted by ad agency Isobel in October in association with YouGov to identify brands that “promote and support family values”.

It asks consumers to rate brands on whether they are socially responsible, caring and good listeners.