Brand engagement study shows Asda and Morrisons performing poorly

A STUDY which analysed 22.7m tweets has found that the relationships between consumers and the Big Four supermarkets, including Yorkshire brands Asda and Morrisons, have taken a beating.

Asda performed better than the other Big Four supermarkets in the study involving 350,000 individuals, which showed their brand engagement scores from best to worst.

Morrisons’ consumer connection took the biggest hit, with the Bradford-based supermarket finishing last, a full eight points below its nearest rival.

Waitrose, Iceland and Aldi showed the strongest ‘emotional engagement’ according to the study by Leeds agency Bloom’s social intelligence engine ‘Whisper’, which used data analytics developed at the University of Oxford by Professor of Mathematics Peter Grindrod, also used by Sky, ITV and KPMG.

The tweets were taken from a 28-day behavioural study of the UK population, and scores are ranked out of 100, with the larger the number indicating the strongest emotional connection to the brand. Leeds United, for example, has a score close to the hundred mark.

Peter Laflin, Bloom’s chief data scientist who led the study, said: “We’ve been able to analyse huge amounts of data, and apply a level of science not used before on this scale, to give real value to what we’ve discovered.

“It’s a study that’s not just about the number of tweets, re-tweets and followers a brand has, but more about how individuals talk about brands – and how they influence others to interact with them over a long period of time.”

Alex Craven, Bloom chief executive, said: “The smaller brands are presenting a real challenge to the big four. What this study shows is that, if they continue to strengthen their customer relationships and build brand affinity, then it’s likely that they’ll take even more of the market share over the coming months.”