Retail

B.C.’s Most Loved Brands: #3 Save-On-Foods

By Matt Gauthier /

Save-on-Foods is B.C.’s #3 most-loved brand according to an inaugural poll conducted by Ipsos North America in partnership with BCBusiness and unveiled on Feb. 12. BCBusiness spoke with Darrell Jones, the president of Overwaitea Food Group, to find out why the grocery chain connects with British Columbian consumers and how the company leverages their brand legacy to keep customers coming back.

In a downtown Vancouver hotel conference room packed with almost 100 senior marketers and CMOs, Ipsos’s executive vice-president and the man behind the study Michael Rodenburgh analyzed the factors that combine to create a loved brand in B.C. He did so with high drama, counting down from No. 10 and diving deep into how each brand scored across the eight metrics used to measure a consumer’s advocacy towards a brand.

These were:

– A brand that I’m likely to interact with
– A brand that I trust
– A brand that I identify with
– A brand that is socially responsible
– A brand that makes a positive contribution to B.C.
– A brand that I see everywhere
– A brand that is an innovator
– A brand that is unique

“Few B.C. brands are so central to our lives in this province,” said Rodenburgh. “Save-On-Foods launched almost a century ago, in 1915, and have spent so many of those years treating customers like individuals, always giving them more, not less.”

The company overindexed consistently in the “I’m likely to interact with this brand” category, as well as trust, identifying with and in making a positive contribution to B.C. Their results were double the B.C. average in all four categories. Ubiquity of the brand and social responsibility were also high-ranking consumer opinions of the brand.

The Top 10 brands ranked in the following order:

1) London Drugs
2) WestJet Airlines
3) Save-On-Foods
4) White Spot
5) Sun-Rype
6) Vancouver Canucks
7) BC Hydro
8) The Keg
9) BCAA
10) Chevron

BCBusiness will present one winning brand per day for the next two weeks, including exclusive video insights from the winning brands’ leaders. Don’t miss a single most-loved brand by signing up for our Daily newsletter by clicking here. And check out our May issue, when we analyze the winning consumer engagement strategies of B.C.’s most-loved brands. Subscribe here to make sure you don’t miss it.