Buzzy Brands 2018: Buzziest brands within different product categories

We bring you the low-down on the buzz within 25 product categories.

While the main list of buzzy brands is category-agnostic, we have computed a separate set of category-specific lists. The idea is to see which brand is the buzziest among its peers.

We studied 25 product categories in all. In each category our voters (popular plus jury) chose three brands that they deemed to be the buzziest, from a list. (For more details on methodology and jurors, please read our main buzzy brands coverage).

Click on the image to see the complete table

This time around we have done away with the 'Corporate' category and have added two new categories - Hotels and Building & Industrial Material.

A look at how brands ranked within their respective categories this year.

Airlines

IndiGo, the buzziest airline brand of 2016-17, has retained its top spot. IndiGo has had to put out many a digital fire recently - remember the video of a crew member assaulting a passenger that went viral few months back? Last month, IndiGo appointed a COO after over a decade; Wolfgang Prock-Schauer is tasked with working on the airline's upcoming low-fare, long-haul international ops.

The other significant changes in this category are: AirAsia has replaced Air India at No.3; German airline, Lufthansa, has entered the top five; last year's No.2 airline, Jet Airways, has been kicked out of the top five.

Apparel, Fashion, Accessories

Titan's youth accessories brand, Fastrack, has topped the buzz chart in its segment this year by a huge margin. The brand, we must mention, has topped the list thanks to the support it got from the jurors; the popular vote was weak. On the back of its bold, cheeky advertising, Fastrack has become a cult brand, unafraid to alienate all but its core TG. The four brands that follow have fairly similar scores. In fact, Nike and Raymond have identical scores and are tied for the fourth place. Interestingly, Fastrack's parent brand, Titan, topped this segment on buzz last year; Fastrack wasn't in the top five. An observation: Bata seems to be upping its buzz quotient year on year - the brand wasn't in the top five in 2016, ranked No.5 in 2017 and has climbed to the No.3 spot this year.

Automotive

Maruti Suzuki, the only auto brand that has made it to the main buzzy list this year, has topped the list within its segment as well... by a clear margin. Jury support for Maruti was strong. Last year too, Maruti topped its category chart beating Tata Motors, Hyundai, Honda, and Mahindra by a gigantic margin. Maruti Suzuki holds over 50 per cent market share in the passenger vehicles segment. Among the brand's buzz-pullers is its sub-compact SUV Vitara Brezza; its hot-selling Swift models- Dzire and Baleno; and premium showroom chain NEXA.

Noteworthy changes in this year's top five: Jeep has gained a lot of buzz over the past 12 months and Toyota has replaced Mahindra at No.5.

Banking & Financial Services, Insurance

Third on the main buzzy list (after Jio and Patanjali), mobile wallet-cum-e-commerce-cum-payments bank player, Paytm, has topped its segment by a fair margin. Paytm was the buzziest brand within its segment last year as well. Of late, Paytm's founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has been in the news for his angst over WhatsApp's interest in the digital payment space; a foray he claims has the unfair support of the NCPI (which is the developer of the nation's Unified Payments Interface or UPI).The variety of brands in the top five is fascinating, in that it covers the entire spectrum of traditional and digital-first sub-segments. LIC, by the way, is out of the top five this year.

Paytm tops BFSI segment

Building and Industrial Material

This is a new category, introduced this year. Asian Paints, followed by Havells, both prolific advertisers, have topped this segment. Both did well on the jury vote. A hot favourite on the stock market, 75-year old brand, Asian Paints, has been in the news recently for its digital marketing efforts (#HomesNotShowrooms) that explore the changes in the 'relationship' people have with their homes. Interestingly, the two brands that follow - Kajaria and well below it in terms of relative score, Jaquar - are both from the bathroom fittings sub-segment. A recent ad campaign for Kajaria's bathroom décor brand, Kerovit, put it on the buzz map thanks to A-list actor Anushka Sharma's uninhibited dance moves in an ad film.

Asian Paints tops Building and Industrial Material segment

Cold Beverages

Coca-Cola has won the buzz race, hands down, on the back of the jury vote; surprisingly, popular support for the brand was weak. The gap between Coke and the rest is enormous. Coke topped last year as well. Thums Up and Paperboat, two very different types of beverage brands, have swapped places as the latter's performance, on the buzz scale at least, has improved. Here's an interesting fact: Pepsi, which was at No.5 in this segment last year, is out of the top five this time around. Earlier this month, Pepsi released its annual big noise TV campaign after a gap of nearly a year. Why is Pepsi's fizz losing its buzz? Well, we surmise it might have something to do with the negative press that ensued after star cricketer, Virat Kohli, dropped the brand from his list of endorsements. Known for his obsession with fitness, Virat said he is against endorsing products he wouldn't consume himself.

Computer and IT Sector

Microsoft has toppled Apple to take the top spot... and score-wise, by a big margin. Microsoft's recent buzz has to do with its Surface Pro, its laptop-meets-tablet brand. Apple, that has done well in the smartphone segment, has been pushed down to No. 2. While Dell has managed to stick around in the top five, HP and Lenovo are out. Meanwhile, Canon and Micromax (a brand that's recalled more readily for its handsets than its PCs and laptops) are in.

Microsoft tops Computer and IT Sector segment

njali topped the main listNote: Microsoft was a hit with the jury, but Apple, on the other hand, got equal support from the jury vote and the popular vote.

Confectionery

In no other segment is the gap between the topper and the rest so vast. Cadbury, a massive hit with the jury, has out-ranked the No. 2 brand, Snickers, by the widest margin between any topper and runner-up in its segment. While Cadbury and Snickers stood first and second last year too, the gap between their scores was much smaller than it is this year.

Cadbury tops Confectionery - Chocolates segment

Must note: Pulse is out of the top five! Kit Kat is holding on to dear buzz quite well. Meanwhile, Nestle and Parle have infiltrated the top five.

Consumer Durables

The most noteworthy observation is the exit of last year's topper, Samsung, from the top five! (In the handset segment as well, Samsung has slipped down from No. 2 to No. 4). LG has topped this segment by a large margin. Last year, LG stood third in this segment. LG has been in the news of late for looking at India as one of its manufacturing hubs for global markets. The company is also looking to launch 'smart fans' in India soon. Sony has stayed steady at No. 2. Syska, that entered the top five last year, has gained buzz and climbed up to No. 3 (from No. 5); the brand has been advertising heavily this past year, across mediums including in-cinema films and TVCs. Godrej is out. Canon and Philips are in.

LG tops Consumer Durables segment

Content Platforms

WhatsApp, now a Facebook brand, has retained its top spot as the buzziest content platform. The popularity of WhatsApp in this market, elsewhere in the world too, has been phenomenal. It has become the go-to app not just for instant messaging but also for sharing images, videos and conducting voice and video calls. Of late, WhatsApp's buzz quotient has gone up even more due to various factors: the platform's interest in the digital payment space and, more importantly, the WhatsApp for Business app (available for download since January this year) that positions the platform as a medium for marketing. Twitter, by the way, the internet's most widely read 'newspaper', as some might call it in jest, is out of the top five. Amazon Prime is in.

Cosmetics, Toiletries, Personal Care

Last year's topper, Patanjali, has slipped to the No. 4 position this time, but sustaining a basic level of buzz is commendable as well and Patanjali has done that and more, across segments. We have a new name at the top spot - Garnier! And we're not at all surprised to see Fogg in the top three. A disruptor in the deodorant market, Fogg, built on the proposition of being 'no gas, only liquid', has managed to become part of local parlance with its funny, catchy (and slightly ridiculous!) 'Kya chal raha hai... Fogg chal raha hai' advertising line. Last year, this segment was dominated by ITC brands - Engage, Vivel and Fiama. Of these, only Engage has stuck on in the top five this time. A new entrant in the top five is HUL's soap brand, Lifebuoy. P&G's Gillette is out.

Garnier tops Cosmetics, Toiletries, Personal Care segment

E-commerce, Services

Amazon has toppled Flipkart and how! Both last year and the year before, Flipkart has been No. 1, followed by Amazon. Now the tables have turned and Amazon has emerged as the leader of this segment by, we must say, a humongous margin. And that's not where the excitement ends... more upsets follow: Ola, BookMyShow and Uber have been replaced by MakeMyTrip, Myntra and Zomato, at the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 positions, respectively. This is indicative of the growth in the online travel, fashion and food delivery sub-segments.

Note: On the main buzzy list, Amazon is at No. 5 and Flipkart is way, way down at No. 98! Buzz sure works in strange ways.

Entertainment

Surprise, surprise! Zee, that wasn't even in the top five, last year, has topped this segment this year. Zee was a big hit with the jury. In October 2017, Zee TV turned 25, created a fresh logo, revamped the brand ethos ('Extraordinary Together') and introduced a new, contemporary catchphrase 'Aaj Likhenge Kal', on the occasion. Zee has also been in the news recently for the launch of its new 'freemium' video on demand platform Z5. Last year's category topper, Sony, is down to No. 2. Tata Sky is out. Though Star, Colors and National Geographic have all managed to stay in the top five, score-wise, they've all slipped.

Zee tops Entertainment segment

Foods

There's been no change in last year's list as far as the top two ranks go: Maggi continues to rule this segment and Patanjali has stayed at No. 2. Even the relative scores of the two have not changed much: Patanjali is very close behind Maggi. But from No. 3 onwards, there's been a big change; last year, the next three players on the list were all ITC brands (Sunfeast, Bingo, Yippee - in that order), but this time, ITC has left the party; Tata Salt, Amul and Parle have come in its stead. Tata Salt has done very well, score-wise. Category winner, Maggi, has turned 35 in India this year. Its latest ad film takes viewers straight into the manufacturing unit and gives them a little behind-the-scenes tour of how the product is produced. Strangely, on the main buzzy list, Maggi is not even amongst the top 70 even!

Maggi tops Foods segment

Hot Beverages

Of the top five brands in the hot beverages segment this year, two are tea brands, two are coffee brands and one is a malt-based drink. Tata Tea tops the segment this year by a pretty large margin, pushing last year's topper, Nescafe, down to No. 3. Tata Tea has gathered a lot of buzz among consumers on the back of its popular 'Jaago Re' advertising campaign that stands for a new social cause with each new creative rendition. Interestingly, among the two coffee brands in this segment, one is coffee retail chain, Starbucks, which operates in a very different space from its segment-mate Nescafe, a packaged coffee brand consumed at home. GSK's Horlicks is out, making Mondelez's Bournvita, the sole malt-based drink in the top five.

Hotels

Introduced for the first time this year, this segment has been an interesting one to look at from the point of view of buzz. Brands in this segment are relatively less active on the B2C advertising circuit. ITC has topped the list but not far behind is good ole heritage brand, Taj. Buzz-drivers for luxury hotel chain, ITC Hotels, include WelcomHotels - its growing chain of hotels targeted at the millennial traveller and some top management churn (Sanjay Sethi was reportedly brought in as CEO recently but moved out soon after). The gap between the No. 4 brand, The Oberoi and No. 5, Le Méridien, is very large.

ITC tops Hotels segment

Household Products

This is more like a war of the detergents. Like last year, of the top five brands in this segment, three are from the fabric-care space. However, there has been some churn - Mosquito repellent player, Good Knight (No. 2 in the segment last year), has replaced Hindustan Unilever's Surf Excel, at the top spot. This might have a lot to do with the surge in mosquito-related diseases like dengue and malaria over the past year. P&G's Ariel, best known in the advertising space for its award-winning 'Share the Load' campaign (that encourages men to do the laundry), has entered the top five and is not far behind the category topper, in terms of relative score, at No. 2. Vim is out. Though Fevicol has slipped a couple of ranks, it has managed to stay in the top five.

Mobile Handsets

Handset category winner last year and the year before that, Apple's iPhone, has retained its buzz and has topped its segment again by a significant margin. Apple, marketer of iPhone, has done very well on the main buzzy list (it's at No. 4, after Jio, Patanjali and Paytm). The iPhone enjoys cult-like loyalty in India. Lovers of the phone get visibly excited about the launch - impending and actual - of every new variant. At the moment, the buzz is around whether the company will increase the number of variants (presently one) assembled in India. In the handset segment, Samsung has slipped down from No. 2 to No. 4. OnePlus is back in the top five bracket; consequently, Xiaomi (No. 7 on the main buzzy list) missed being in the top five by a narrow margin. Motorola is out. OPPO and Vivo are at No. 6 and No. 10 on the main list, respectively.

iPhone tops mobile handset segment

News

This segment was introduced last year. The top few names have stayed pretty much the same as last year's with Rajat Sharma-owned Hindi news channel, India TV, on top by a large margin over the brands that follow - NDTV, Times Now and The Times of India, in that order. The brand has topped the list purely on the back of the popular vote. The only change in the top five is at No. 5 where last year's position holder, Aaj Tak, has been kicked out by new entrant, BBC World. The news segment is inherently involved in generating buzz for issues, people and brands and it is interesting to note that not a single news brand is part of the top 10 buzzy brands (main) list. Nevertheless, category topper, India TV, stands proud at No. 11 on the main list, which is an achievement worth noting.

India TV tops news segment

OTC

Baba Ramdev's Patanjali strikes again. The popularity of the brand's Ayurveda-based products has earned it the top spot in the OTC space yet again (it topped the OTC chart last year too). The brands that follow are all very far below Patanjali, in terms of their relative score. And it is noteworthy that besides the top spot, Nos. 2-5 are all new names this year. Last year, Patanjali was followed by Savlon (that missed topping by a whisker), Himalaya, Volini and Durex. This time, we have Moov, Manforce, Prega News, and Revital in their respective places. Note that on the main buzzy list, Patanjali is at No.2, second to Reliance's Jio. Last year Patanjali topped the main list.

Patanjali tops OTC segment

QSR

What a fun mix of brands, this! Coffee, pizza, fried chicken, and Indian namkeen snacks. After being dethroned from its top spot by McDonald's last year, Domino's Pizza has regained the throne this time. And McDonald's has been tossed out of the top five. Interestingly, Indore-based Haldiram's - that tied for the fifth place with Pizza Hut and Café Coffee Day last year - has managed to hang on to its buzz this time as well amid competition from global chains. Subway is out of the top five and Starbucks is in. In general, the QSR segment is still recovering from the problems brought in by demonetisation and GST. Other challenges include: the rise of food delivery services like Zomato and Swiggy that give consumers many options, increased competition from a burgeoning sub-segment of newer stand-alone entrants in the space and dealing with (read: shutting outlets) having expanded to fast in the past.

Domino's Pizza tops QSR segment

Retail

This segment was introduced last year. Offline retailers have been rivalling the growing popularity of online retail players for a while now; though the list reflects popularity within the segment, the top five brands deserve a round of applause nonetheless. Last year's topper, Big Bazaar (owned by Future Group), has slipped down to No. 4 this year. Lifestyle Retail, that stood second last year, has snagged the top spot. A new entrant in this segment is Decathlon, a sportswear chain that has become very popular over the last 12 months. This has a lot to do with consumers' growing interest in sports, adventure and the outdoors in general. We expect this brand's popularity to increase in the months ahead.

Lifestyle Retail tops retail segment

Telecom

The top five names in this segment have stayed more or less the same the last year, albeit with a few noteworthy tweaks. This time, Airtel and Jio have tied for the top spot within the segment. Both have fetched a large and equal number of votes. Currently one segment the telcos are increasingly feeding off of - and vice-versa - is the OTT segment; while the association helps telcos sell more data packs, it helps video on demand platforms distribute their content easily.

Airtel tops telecom segment along with Jio

Jio tops telecom segment, along with Airtel

Important note: On our main buzzy brands list, Reliance-owned Jio, is at the top this year. On that list, Airtel is at No. 9. No other telecom brand has made it in the top 10 on the main list. Interestingly, both Airtel and Jio have received some negative press in recent times.

Two-wheelers

Not much has changed in this segment buzz-wise, except perhaps, for a small seat-swap between Harley-Davidson and Honda. Royal Enfield continues to rule this chart and Hero, like last year, is not too far behind in terms of relative score. In 2016, the same five brands topped the list in more or less the same order. Royal Enfield has a strong pool of loyalists that help keep the brand alive on the road, online and in social conversation. The cult bike brand has been in the news recently for several reasons: entry into the pre-owned motorcycle business, interest in developing an electric motorcycle for the Indian market and the launch of two variants under the Thunderbird brand.

Websites

Being from the same space, this is one of our favourite categories to study. The category was introduced at the Buzzies last year. Google stays strong and proud at No. 1 by a wide margin, just like last year. Noun-turned-verb, Google, is a steadfast favourite among our voters. Of late, Google has been working on improving its 'People Also Ask' search feed by including answers in the results (at the moment, only additional questions were displayed). Hanging by a thread is Cricbuzz at No. 5, which was at No. 3 last year. Yahoo has been kicked out of the top five (it's still in the top 10 though); Firstpost has made it's debut.

Google tops websites segment