Market Leader in Domestic Grocery
Every Icelander knows the smiling piggy-bank logo—it belongs to Bónus, Iceland’s largest supermarket chain. The company dates back to 1989, when Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson and his father, Jóhannes Jónsson, opened their first store in Reykjavik. Within a few years it was the biggest grocer in Iceland. Today, with its 31 stores, Bónus commands a dominant position in the nation’s grocery-shopping habits.
“We have used another survey tool which wasn’t as in-depth, it didn’t have as many cogs in the wheel. brandr Index helped me identify areas where we needed to improve. Using it was a step in the right direction. In saying that, you need time to deep-dive into brandr Index. It shows a lot of promise, but you need manpower to unlock it”
Gap analysis for improvement
Baldur Ólafsson, the Marketing Director at Bónus, says that the company’s marketing and branding team consists of himself and a graphic designer. This power duo is sometimes joined by an intern, with an outside marketing agency providing an additional ten hours a month on offers and promotions. That includes social media exposure, Google ads and email banners. “The reason we bought brandr Index was, first, to see where we stand in the market. One of the key features of brandr Index is a benchmark which rates you against your competitors. brandr Index shows you pretty quickly where you can improve on your weaknesses. It goes down a different route than most other indexes and surveys, and I found that very interesting.”
Baldur adds that what you do with that information is key to the success of your brand-building exercise. “You need to be mindful of your own capacity. brandr Index is a powerful tool, and if you are a small marketing team you might not be able to use the tool to your benefit. At least the results will give you an idea of what you should gradually be moving towards.”
“brandr Index opens up interesting directions for further analysis”, says Baldur. “We have discussed with the brandr Index team the possibility of having a focus group diving into the results.”
High-quality information
Baldur thinks that brandr Index offers a lot of high-quality information. “We have used another survey tool which wasn’t as in-depth, it didn’t have as many cogs in the wheel. brandr Index helped me identify areas where we needed to improve. Using it was a step in the right direction. In saying that, you need time to deep-dive into brandr Index. It shows a lot of promise, but you need manpower to unlock it.”
In terms of the likelihood of recommending brandr Index to other marketing practitioners, on a scale of 1 to 10 Baldur would give it an eight. “I would also tell them to be mindful of the tool’s analytical potential. It will offer you a lot of feedback, and you need to be prepared for that. If you have a small team think in advance how you can use the findings, rather than let them go unused. brandr Index will offer you a lot of good information, take the time to understand what it tells you.”
