Boots scores highly as an inclusive, accessible brand that appeals to shoppers by showing a varied portrayal of women in its advertising. It was the most liked brand by both the women with low self-esteem (60.1 out of 100) and high self-esteem (68.5), with a gap between the two groups of 8.4 points.

Performing really strongly in the challenging financial services category is Nationwide, which appeals to both women identifying with low (51.1) and high self-esteem (52.9), producing a gap of just 1.8. The results speak to the effectiveness of the building society’s positioning around mutuality and being a inclusive, partnership-led brand.

Questions hang over the inclusivity of John Lewis, however, which emerged as the brand with the biggest gap between women with low self-esteem (46.3) and high self-esteem (63) of 16.6 points.

Amy Cashman, managing director UK of Kantar TNS, explains that John Lewis has historically been seen as quite an upmarket brand, which can be a bit off-putting. The business is also seen as being south-centric having only recently increased its footprint across the country.

“While it has this thing about never knowingly being undersold, John Lewis is often seen in the tracking data we have as a brand that’s more expensive. To us it doesn’t necessarily feel like it is a brand for everybody. A brand for people of higher social grades is how it’s normally seen when you ask people in the wider population,” Cashman explains.

[Marketers’] job is to make sure we’re accentuating the good and making sure that people have that accessibility and can find other views, outlooks and challenges so they can help process things.
Philippa Snare, Facebook
Nike is the brand with the second biggest gap between women with low self-esteem (46.8) and high self-esteem (62.7), creating a gap of 15.8. Kantar noted that the focus of its advertising is more on professional athletes like Serena Williams than real women, which can exclude women who are new to exercise or are not aspiring to this kind of athleticism.

Online investment management startup Nutmeg was singled out as a brand that is relatively balanced between women with low and high self-esteem. Women who describe themselves as having low self-esteem (52) actually prefer the brand compared to women with high self-esteem (49.8), creating a gap of -2.2.

Kantar acknowledged that the brand does a great job of bringing people into a complicated category that traditionally uses quite difficult language, which is tricky to understand.

The only other brand that appeals more to women with lower self-esteem is Marks & Spencer (50 vs 46.7 points). Cashman explains that this is not a problem for M&S, but it could make the company think again about its targeting.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.marketingweek.com