Surewaves Buzziest Brands 2014: The Category Toppers

This is the first year that afaqs! has introduced product categories - and voters were enthusiastic participants. A look at the winners and the runners up in each category.

The ninth edition of Surewaves Buzziest Brands has been the biggest one yet. There have been dramatic shifts in the Power Buzzy line up, and a change in methodology has allowed the participation of all brands.

Samsung, which creditably beat back a challenge from former No. 1 Facebook in 2013, had the satisfaction of seeing the social networking brand decline to No. 13 this year - it scored relatively poorly with visitors and none of the jurors opted for it either. In its place, Samsung had upstart and rival Micromax snapping at its heels this year.

iPhone, which has been gaining ground in India, curiously drops from No. 6 to way down the list - and surprisingly, in its place its corporate parent, Apple, barges in at No. 4. Tanishq is the other big winner in the Buzzies of 2014, on the back of a conversation-provoking commercial, a widened product range and the favour of the jury. Micromax was the other brand the jurors just loved.

Like last year, mobile handsets and telecom service brands are all the rage this time too: five of the top 10 Buzzies belong to one or the other. As for how the rest did, read on.

Surewaves Buzziest Brands 2014 was sponsored by Surewaves, Micromax, Grihshobha, Fox Traveller and PayTM.

TOP 10 BUZZY BRANDS

BUZZY GOLD | SAMSUNG

The brand at the top of the Buzzy heap entered India in 1995, launching what it called 'World's Best TV' and taunted its rivals in its launch TV commercial. Samsung soon introduced its entire range of products, including refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners.

This is one of those rare brands which have been in the Buzzies list for each of the nine years. For the first four years, however, it performed unimpressively, appearing in the bottom half of the list, and reached its low point in 2008 when it dropped to No. 49.

It began to enter the top dozen Buzzy names only after its mobile handset foray began to gain ground. By 2012, it had hit the No. 5 spot and last year, for the first time, it got the Buzzy Gold, beating a challenge from Facebook.

Though Samsung has an enormous suite of consumer products, the buzz comes most from its hot-selling range of mobile phones. Only one juror voted for the brand but it was so far ahead of the others on popular vote that Samsung sailed through comfortably to No. 1.

BUZZY SILVER | MICROMAX

This is an upstart to beat all upstarts, an Indian brand that has yet to celebrate its sixth birthday. When it was born in 2008, the mobile market was in the stranglehold of international brands. So, it created products which met specific Indian needs.

For example, in a country with chronic power cuts, it launched a handset with a battery that would last for weeks. Then again, it introduced phones with dual SIMs, an innovation that would soon become a standard.

It's come a long way since then, barging into the big league as a major player among premium phones. Ever since it entered the Buzzies in 2011, it has been a big performer. This year's performance is the best ever for the brand.

BUZZY BRONZE | GOOGLE

Google has become a permanent and prominent fixture in the Buzzies list ever since it got into the list in 2008 after a change in methodology. It has almost always been in the top six except for 2010 when it dropped to No 12. Google has become so much a part of our lives that it is a wonder that voters still find it Buzzy. It's probably the relentless innovation associated with the brand that keeps the excitement going.

The ninth edition of India's Buzziest Brands has been the biggest one yet. Samsung, which creditably beat back a challenge from former No. 1 Facebook in 2013, had the satisfaction of seeing the social networking brand decline to No. 13 this year - it scored relatively poorly with visitors and none of the jurors opted for it either. In its place, Samsung had Micromax snapping at its heels this year.

This is the first year when we have introduced product categories - and voters were enthusiastic participants. We divided the categories by whether or not the No. 5 brand had scored half as much as the No. 1. In only six of the 20 categories did the No. 5 manage to do that, including the categories of Apparel, Fashion & Accessories; Automotive; Banking, Financial Services & Insurance; OTC Products; and Two-Wheelers. This means that relative to the category leader, the No. 5 still packed a fair amount of buzz.

In nearly all of the rest, the scores were much lower than the halfway mark. The most lopsided categories were Telecom, Mobiles, Hot Beverages, Household Products and Consumer Durables. The No. 5, in each of these cases, packed less than 30 per cent of the leader's buzz.

The ninth edition of India's Buzziest Brands has been the biggest one yet. Samsung, which creditably beat back a challenge from former No. 1 Facebook in 2013, had the satisfaction of seeing the social networking brand decline to No. 13 this year - it scored relatively poorly with visitors and none of the jurors opted for it either. In its place, Samsung had Micromax snapping at its heels this year.

This is the first year when we have introduced product categories - and voters were enthusiastic participants. We divided the categories by whether or not the No. 5 brand had scored half as much as the No. 1. In only six of the 20 categories did the No. 5 manage to do that, including the categories of Apparel, Fashion & Accessories; Automotive; Banking, Financial Services & Insurance; OTC Products; and Two-Wheelers. This means that relative to the category leader, the No. 5 still packed a fair amount of buzz.

In nearly all of the rest, the scores were much lower than the halfway mark. The most lopsided categories were Telecom, Mobiles, Hot Beverages, Household Products and Consumer Durables. The No. 5, in each of these cases, packed less than 30 per cent of the leader's buzz.

Surewaves Buzziest Brands 2014 was sponsored by Surewaves, Micromax, Grihshobha, Fox Traveller and PayTM. Here's presenting the first 10 categories in alphabetical order.

Airlines

Flying high in the airline category is a brand that has faced barely an air pocket in its ascent so far. Indigo wins in the airline category, while Jet Airways occupies the second spot.

Apparel | Fashion| Accessories

The category saw a brand that has been behind some truly memorable and clutter breaking advertising in 2013 emerge as winner. Tanishq bagged the top spot with Fastrack closing in as runner up.

Automotive

The winner in this category was a brand that simply understands Asia. After a superb run in China, its sight is truly set on India now. With a narrow lead over the runner up Maruti Suzuki, the winner was Volkswagen.

Banking | Financial Services | Insurance

In this category, the name that comes to mind is one which slugs it out in every poll. ICICI Bank emerges as the winner with HDFC on the second place.

Beverages

This category saw the two famous cola brands fight it out amongst themselves. Pulling ahead of Pepsi, the runner up this year, on the back of some memorable work is the winner, Coca-Cola.

Computers| IT Sector

The runner up was one of the best marketing stories in recent years, brand Lenovo, but the name that caused a global upheaval in mobiles still rules our minds as Apple emerged as the runaway winner.

Confectionery | Chocolates

When one thinks of chocolate, this is probably the first brand that comes to mind. Cadbury Dairy Milk from Mondelez canters to a win in this category with Nestle's KitKat as a runner up.

Consumer Durables

Keeping up the momentum with some really smart marketing across all its categories, Samsung achieves the top spot in consumer durables, with Sony as the runner up.

Content

The winner in this category is one on which people probably spend maximum time - and occasionally try hard to keep away from, as a challenge! Facebook emerged as content category winner this year, with Google as the runner up.

Corporate

When it comes to corporates, old is gold. Gliding in smoothly to first place is brand Tata, with the burra sahib from Kolkata, brand ITC, as runner up.

Watch out for the rest of the categories in tomorrow's edition.

We would like to thank our title sponsor Surewaves