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Insight featured on campaign asia.
Discover why Singapore Airlines reigns supreme in 2024 and which brands are vying to climb the ranks—insights from Campaign’s regional research in collaboration with Milieu Insight.
Singapore Airlines has landed itself in the top position in our list of the best-loved brands by consumers in Singapore. The flagship carrier of the Lion City beat out other homegrown favourites Shopee and Grab to take the first spot on the list. Singapore Airlines benefited from achieving the highest quality of services score of all brands (78%) and the top score for trustworthiness, alongside being the brand that Singaporean consumers are most likely to recommend to others.
The ranking stems from Campaign's authoritative list of Southeast Asia's top 50 brands, recently revealed at Campaign360 in partnership with research firm Milieu Insight.
Six markets (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore) were involved in the survey, in which recognised brands across 10 sectors were ranked using nine brand attributes, including awareness, purchase, quality, buying experience, customer service, trustworthiness, innovation, brand touchpoints (ease of use across all digital and offline brand interactions), and advocacy (degree of recommendation), to form their score.
Among the top brands, Singapore consumers were fixated on food. Almost a third of their top 50 brands were those who could satisfy cravings (McDonald's, Haidilao, Din Tai Fung, Starbucks, Ichiban Sushi, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Subway, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Shake Shack and MOS Burger). That's not even including food delivery services like Foodpanda, Grab and McDonald's Delivery, which along with Singpost and DHL, round out a small cluster of transport brands.
Singaporeans also included more banks (DBS, OCBC, POSB) among their leaders, along with a mix of retailers and apparel brands. Alongside Singapore Airlines, three other homegrown brands made the top 10, Shopee, Grab and DBS.
Let's have a closer look at the top performers.
1. Singapore Airlines
It's an airline synonymous with world class customer service and high quality, which regularly sees the city-state's flagship carrier top 'best airline' polls internationally. It's no surprise that Singaporeans are proud of their homegrown airline, and this was reflected in the fact that it was the brand that Singaporeans are most likely to recommend. It also achieved the top score for trustworthiness and quality of services. It was also the only airline in Southeast Asia ranked high enough in at least three markets to be featured in the overall regional rankings (16th).
2. Uniqlo
Cheap, clean and cheerful with nice design, Japanese fast fashion retailer Uniqlo outperforms in Singapore, ranking second compared to 7th overall in Southeast Asia. It led the pack in Singapore when it came to service across various touchpoints, and was the second most recommended brand in the market, behind only Singapore Airlines. Uniqlo also rated second for its buying experience and only lagged behind other leading brands when it came to quality—finishing in sixth position, ahead of brands like Samsung.
3. Apple
Apple rates more highly in Singapore, home to a more affluent market and one that appreciates quality. It tied with local bank DBS to achieve the highest brand awareness score in the market, and although it finished second to Singapore Airlines in the quality category, its score was miles ahead of the rest of the pack following well behind. The online and offline hardware provider with its own retail network had the highest buying experience and innovation scores in Singapore and came third for its seamlessness across touchpoints.
4. Shopee
As in other SEA markets, Singaporeans rated Shopee as their top online shopping platform. Known for its aggressive marketing and offers, Shopee's service quality score was nothing to write home about. But consumers do appreciate its seamless service across various touchpoints and buying experience, also giving it the third highest recommendation score overall.
5. Haidilao
The Chinese hotpot restaurant chain is well-known for providing extravagant customer care, sometimes even treating waiting customers to manicures and massages. Such treatment is well-received, with Singaporeans giving it high marks for quality and inventiveness.
6. Grab
Despite the fact that Grab is used by Singaporeans for everything from deliveries to payments to transportation, the so-called "super app" fell short of its overall fourth-place region overall. Although it has a large market awareness and purchase frequency, it lags behind in terms of quality and customer service. With regards to overall consumer experience, brands typically succeed or fail in the touchpoints category, and this is where it ranked in sixth position.
7. McDonald's
The fast food chain is undoubtedly a local favourite in Singapore thanks to its simple and quick ordering process; it received the highest purchase frequency score out of all the brands on the list. Its score was earned in part by its efficient experience across brand touchpoints, which came in at number four overall. It also placed in the top 10 for recommendation. However, it falls far short of sit-down eateries like Haidilao and Din Tai Fung in terms of product quality.
8. Din Tai Fung
The Taiwanese dim sum chain is the most recommended restaurant in Singapore and has the highest quality ranking of any restaurant. It's not well-known for its digital experience; it scores lower on optimisation across touchpoints, and while service is prompt, its buying experience isn't particularly great either. Customers give their experiences here such good ratings mainly because of the food's flavour and enjoyment.
9. Adidas
The activewear brand is the only fashion label, besides Uniqlo, to make the top 10. Benefiting from high brand awareness in the market, the German lifestyle brand popular for its sneakers ranked highly for quality and trustworthiness, but its score for service across touchpoints was low and was otherwise bested by Uniqlo in every other category.
10. DBS
Local bank DBS is the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets and among the largest banks in Asia. It's the only bank or financial provider to make the top 10, and benefits from high brand awareness in its home market. While the bank is well known to Singaporean customers, other than brand awareness, it's not ranked highly across many of the other categories. However, it did rank fourth for trustworthiness, which is a good result considering the bank has experienced a series of outages recently, at times impacting online banking and ATM cash withdrawals.
