Why are retailers’ brands so loved?

Every year for the past ten years, everyone is looking forward to the rating of favorite Latvian brands (Latvijas mīlētāko zīmolu tops). As stated by the researchers themselves, the top has become a measure of the success of communication and marketing campaigns, because it determines the degree of loyalty to clients, respect and trust in the brand and, finally, a willingness to buy its products. I decided to analyze what was the top companies’ communication on Facebook in the period from December 2013 to August 2014. Maxima in 55% of all its publications informed about promotions, contests and the assortment and in 45% - about current news, interesting facts, recipes, social programs, holiday greetings. For Rimi proportion was 54% and 46%, and for Supernetto - 66% and 34%, respectively. This manner of communication is popular because Rimi profile has 7 351 followers, Maxima – 5733 and Supernetto - 1731 people, publications have been noted as favorite, and they are shared, commented. The largest numbers of “likes” get in particular publications about promotions, updating the assortment and contests: Rimi profile on average gets 33 “likes” for these publications, the other themes publication collect on average from 6 to 18 “likes”. Maxima show a similar trend: business news - 22 “likes”, interesting facts, recipes - 6.6, the latest news on shops working time - 12, and public campaigns and holiday greetings - 16. The study of Supernetto communication showed that the news about assortment and promotions were much more popular than publications on other topics. In early 2014, when the question of the Zolitude supermarket tragedy was still very hard, only 23% of Latvians evaluated Maxima as a brand worthy of trust, 36% started purchasing in Maxima rarely, 9% stopped shopping at this brand shops. By the autumn of 2014 Maxima was ranked in the 6th place of the most beloved Latvian brands, rising one step higher compared with the previous year. According to the rating, Maxima have taken such a high place thanks to the financial attractiveness of their proposals, as it was indicated by 61.2% of respondents. Quality of Maxima products and its uniqueness, in turn, praised only 15.3% and 11.7% respondents, respectively. Rimi, for example, was ranked the first among the favorite retail brands also due to the profitability of their proposals (46.9%), significantly dominant over quality (38.1%) and uniqueness (15.2%); and Supernetto – in the third: quality (12 5%), uniqueness (12.9%), profitability (64.1%). In the case of Drogas, Top and Prisma situation is similar. Obviously, when it comes to the acquisition of consumer goods, the cost for Latvians is crucial. Aware of what is really important for consumers and what they love and true in some brands, you can actively communicate the company profile business news. Rimi, Maxima and Supernetto examples show that consumers appreciate the openness, clarity and proposals honesty. Of course, we cannot forget about the other areas of communication, otherwise it will be too intrusive commercial. Judging by the number of comments at the news of social campaigns and holiday greetings cordiality is also very important for users.