Bukedde, New Vision top superbrands

By Samuel Sanya

Vision Group brands; the New Vision and Bukedde newspapers have emerged among the top 20 most respected brands in Uganda in the latest 2015/16 superbrands survey.

Superbrands is the world’s largest independent arbiter of branding. It identifies and pays tribute to exceptional brands through bi-annual survey.

The research to establish Uganda’s top 20 brands incorporated views of an expert council and over 1,000 urban consumers from Kampala, Jinja and Mbarara. All respondents in the random survey were above 18 years and 59% were female.

Bukedde emerged 16th and the New Vision, Uganda’s leading daily emerged 18th. Rwenzori mineral water scooped the first slot followed by Sadolin paints, MTN, Nakumatt, Fresh dairy and MTN mobile money in that order.

Other notable brands included Serena Hotels, Coca-Cola, Omo, Uganda Waragi, Mountain Dew, Makerere University, Total, Mukwano premium vegetable cooking oil, and Panadol.
(Lef-Right) Moris Mugisha, Derek Balinda (MTN), Anne Kareba (DHL), Christine Mueni, Jawad Jaffer,  Chris Nugent and Wilesh Jani (Sadolin) Suzan Nsibirwa (Vision Group) and Martin Sebuliba (MTN) at Serena Hotel. They were rated the  20 most recognised brands in Uganda by Superbrand East Africa. Tuesday 26th may 2015. PHOTO BY ENOCK KAKANDE

The brands do not pay to enter the survey. Christine Mueni, the associate director of TNS RMS who carried out the research noted that Ugandans are more tech savvy, health conscious and are more demanding due to international exposure.

“A Superbrand is a brand that represents high quality, reliability and distinction. In addition, Super brands are deemed to have established the finest reputation in their field.

“They offer customers significant emotional and/or tangible advantages over brands, which (consciously or sub-consciously) customers want and recognize,” Mueni explained during the unveiling ceremony at the Serena Kampala Hotel.

Jawad Jaffer, the Superbrands East Africa project director noted that more than 400 brands from more than 28 different sectors were considered and the public had the final say.

“The results provide a detailed and robust barometer of brand success and performance with the overall and category winners justifiably proud of their performance in this competitive process.

“The more powerful a brand is, the more profitable it will be. The recognized companies should shout about their status and consider expanding beyond East Africa,” Jaffer said.

“If you know your consumer, you will make money. Consumers are looking for innovative solutions to their needs. We shall expand the survey to more towns in the next survey,” he added.

Reacting to the Superbrands status of the New Vision and Bukedde newspapers, Susan Nsibirwa, the Vision Group Head of Marketing and Communications said: “The results of the survey are an indication that our teams are providing a product that the audience wants.”

“There is still room for improvement; New Vision’s position has slightly come down and Bukedde has gone up. We shall continue innovating and improving to be in touch with what our customers want,” she added.

Martin Sebuliba, the MTN Senior Manager for brand and communications said: “We thank our customers for recognizing us as the finest in the telecommunication sector. We shall continue providing quality service.”

While there were new brands in the top twenty, other such as Bata, National Insurance Corporation (NIC, Bell lager, Dettol, Daily Monitor, Shoprite, Warid Telecom, Radio One, Vaseline and Bidco Uganda dropped out altogether.