Amazon’s Brand Equity Doubles Walmart, Target
Amazon stands above the top big box retailers Walmart and Target in the eyes of consumers, who view the e-commerce giant as a unique trendsetter in comparison with its leading retail competitors.
That’s according to a recent report on brand equity from Kantar that also revealed all three retailers were viewed as “meaningful” and “salient” by consumers. However, Amazon scored significantly higher for all three categories in Kantar’s BrandZ analysis, which considered the three descriptors as core building blocks for brand equity.
Executive Summary
The BrandZ analysis underscores just how far and away Amazon is from its nearest competitors in more ways than one. While the company is primarily known as a retailer, its Amazon Web Services business serves many retailers and industries, and its retail media network is also one of the largest in existence.
Within meaningful (meeting needs in relevant ways and/or building affinity), salient (coming quickly to mind) and different (being unique vs. competitors and/or setting trends), Amazon scored around 200 on the BrandZ index--roughly double the average in the analysis.
“Amazon’s ability to be simultaneously Meaningful, Different and Salient drives its brand equity to a level that far supasses the equity of its closest competitors,” the report reads.
The company has seen its brand value soar 8,124% to $492.1 billion since 2006, according to Kantar. And Amazon’s tight grip on consumers is buoyed by its high-value Prime membership, which includes 142 million members in the U.S., as well as its extensive logistics network. Further, the brand has created smart home devices under its own name, driving clear differentiation from competitors.
On the BrandZ Power Index, which measures the ability to drive current market share, Amazon scored a 289, compared to an average brand’s score of 100. The index also revealed bad news for Walmart and Target--below average scores when it came to “different.”
“The relatively high Power Index scores of Amazon’s closest competitors, Walmart and Target, reflect their well-earned stature in today’s market,” the report states. “However, both retailers score below average on the Potential Index, which signals their need to strengthen Difference.”
Target and Walmart are both making efforts to increase their product selections for wider consumer groups, and their substantial actions to becoming omnichannel retailers may help both companies improve brand equity in the future.
“Amazon’s increasing dominance of retail shows the heightened importance for traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ players to further accelerate their online capabilities,” Martin Guerrieria, global head of research at BrandZ, told Retail Leader. “It’s clear that those already investing in this area prior to the pandemic are now best placed to succeed in an irrevocably evolved retail landscape.”