M-PESA, Kenya’s biggest mobile payment brand, has been voted Kenya’s leading SUPERBRAND for the sixth year in a row, ahead of parent company Safaricom, which came in second.
This reinforces the platform’s position as important and necessary to the operation of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and comes at a time when the global economic slowdown is affecting the Kenyan economy.
Six new brands entered the top 20 for the first time in this survey, compared to the previous 2020 listing. Jik, Darling, Beyond Fruits, Nescafe, St John’s Ambulance, and Kenya Airways are among them. The findings are based solely on a comprehensive survey of urban Kenyan consumers (chosen at random) conducted by Kantar TNS in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu.
According to the report, consumers in various purchasing classes have been forced to choose more economical products due to budget concerns. Low-cost brands are no longer limited to the mass market and are now visible to even the middle-class consumer. Consumers are increasingly investigating products before making buying decisions as e-commerce adoption has expanded over the Covid-19 era. Some consumers are emphasizing difference and penalizing brands that are more premium or value-oriented yet lack differentiation from low-priced mainstream products.
“Not having the luxury to go out and grab fast foods or a quick coffee, and instead order in or prepare alternatives from home has pushed brands like Nescafe from rank 116 in 2020 to 16 and Jumia Foods from nowhere in 2020 to rank 18.” reads the report.
Consumers were specifically asked about the impact of the Superbrands seal on their decision-making process in 2022. Eight out of ten respondents were more likely to choose a brand that displayed the seal. Consumers felt that a company’s involvement with a Superbrand would help enhance its reputation and help it stand out from the competitors.
Jawad Jaffer, Project Manager, Superbrands East Africa said, “ We continue to see that the Kenyan consumer is a savvy decision-maker. They want brands to deliver value and purpose. This is reflected in the survey with 85% of respondents associating the Superbrands seal as a mark of quality and reliability”.
David Ogara, Manager, Kantar TNS observes, “With the middle-class consumer now experiencing brands across different price points in search of low-cost, higher value alternatives they are better informed and more selective. This now places them in a better position to truly decide which brands they believe are Superbrands across the different categories. The Kenyan consumer of today wants innovation and functionality”.
