Uber Is Australia’s Most Disruptive Brand

Research conducted by branding agency Principals in conjunction with research firm The Navigators has found rideshare service Uber to be Australia’s most disruptive brand.

The Brand Alpha study seeks the opinion of Australian consumers on brands and how they measure against four key drivers of authenticity: visibility, value, vitality and virtue.

The research is conducted multiple times each year and has been running for more than 10 years with a minimum of 300 nationally representative respondents for each wave.

The most recent wave was conducted in April and May and focused on disruption posing the question as to which brands Australian consumers consider to be the most disruptive as well as the sectors they would most like to see disrupted.

Australia’s most disruptive brands according to Brand Alpha

Uber
Tesla
Aldi
Afterpay
Airbnb
Netflix
Amazon
ApplePay
Facebook
Google

Of the most disruptive brands, only one is Australian – Afterpay. It is also the youngest of the brands.

Principals founder and planning director Wayde Bull said, “Authentic disruptors combine purpose, personality and strong value appeal, all wrapped in a beautifully designed customer experience.”

According to Bull, however, disruptive brands have a habit of attracting disloyal consumers and once the initial market disruption phase passes, brands need to consider their position in-market if they wish to become long-standing leaders in their category.

And a rabble-rousing challenger brand persona isn’t going to sustain a brand for the long term either with Bull suggesting brands need to create a warmer, more welcoming personality moving forward.

A commonality among the top brands in the study is that each handles the end-to-end consumer experience.

In the case of Uber, the service offers a seamless experience from booking to payment while Tesla manages its own car sales opting not to outsource to dealers.

The study also unearthed the brands most likely to be disrupted, brands that users see many reasons to potentially switch away from.

The list of ‘sitting ducks’ is topped by Foxtel, Stan, Youi, Dodo, Myer, Jetstar, Tigerair, iiNet, Facebook and perhaps unsurprisingly, the big four banks.

Additionally, a list of brands that had previously been seen as disruptors but have since been stripped of the title emerged from the research.

These ‘once-were-disruptor’ brands include Aussie Home Loans, Tigerair, Foxtel, Apple, Virgin Australia, Optus, Ikea, Facebook, Jetstar and Dodo.

Of this list, Bull said, “These are businesses that have either dialled back their fighting spirit, been swallowed by larger rivals or have ‘normalised’ as familiar mainstream brands and now run the risk of attack from next-gen brands.”

In terms of the sectors consumers would most like to see disrupted, they are:

Energy utilities
Health insurers
Banks
Government services
Health services
Free to air television
Public transport
Postal and parcel delivery services
Grocery shopping
Personal and general insurance

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