Xerox ranked as Europe's leading office paper brand, followed by Portucel Soporcel's Navigator, Lyreco, HP: Opticom

Kendall Sinclair

STOCKHOLM , January 27, 2012 (press release) – Opticom International Research now presents the results of the 10th edition of the “Brand Equity Tracking Survey - Office Paper”. This industry standard benchmark survey for office paper brands has been conducted among 3 000 professional end-users across 10 countries in Europe.

The top European office paper brands according to the Opticom Brand Equity Index are:

Rank 2011 Brand (Brand owner)
1 Xerox (Xerox)
2 Navigator (grupo Portucel Soporcel)
3 Lyreco(Lyreco)
4 HP(HP)
5 Office Depot(Office Depot)
6 Viking(Office Depot/Viking Direct)
7 Plano(Papyrus)
8 Clairefontaine(Clairefontaine)
9 Staples(Staples)
10 Discovery(grupo Portucel Soporcel)
11 Data Copy(M-real)
12 Inácopia(grupo Portucel Soporcel)
13 Ricoh(Ricoh)
14 Double A Paper(Advance Agro)

In this year’s survey, there are two new brands entering the total BEI ranking: Staples and Inácopia. “Staples entering the top ranking was expected as this company is following a similar strategy as the other leading resellers Lyreco and Office Depot by turning its corporate brand into a product brand.” says Marijn van der Sluijs, Project Manager for the survey. He also concludes: “The return of Inácopia means that grupo Portucel Soporcel is now the only brand owner with three brands among the leading brands. This in combination with Navigator’s steady improvement in the BEI ranking shows this company knows how to establish and maintain strong office paper brands.”

Xerox is still the leading office paper brand and the rebranding strategies of the leading office supplies resellers are shown to be paying off. Traces of the office supplies resellers’ former brands can still be found in certain markets, however, and specific efforts may be needed to completely replace the old brands.

In addition to grupo Portucel Soporcel’s and the rebranded reseller brands improving, Papyrus’ Plano has continued to perform well and this year climbs in the ranking. Ricoh has passed Double A Paper, but otherwise the improvement for these two brands is mainly related to the fact that a number of brands are less often considered to be a main brand bought (vs. 2009) and therefore no longer qualify to be included in the ranking of brands.

As indicated in the table above, the changed scope with the inclusion of three new markets makes the comparison towards 2009 slightly skewed, but when focusing only on the seven markets previously covered, the eight brands with the highest rank appear in exactly the same order. Only brands ranked 9 and 10 change places and for the Western European countries which used to constitute the standard coverage, Discovery should thus be considered to perform better than Staples.

Also, 2011’s extended coverage saves two brands – M-real’s Data Copy and Ricoh – from dropping out of the ranking as they in 2011 only qualify for the Brand Equity Index calculation in one of the former basic countries.


About Opticom’s Brand Equity Index and the Office Paper Tracking Survey

Opticom’s Brand Equity Index model assesses the impact of individual office paper brands, benchmarks the leading brands against each other and evaluates the success of individual brand strategies over time through four indexed key drivers of brand equity: spontaneous awareness, top-of-mind, qualities & associations and loyalty.

In order to improve the brand equity of their brands, brand owners should analyse the individual results for the different sub- indexes – both in comparison to the last survey as well as in relation to other brands – and determine where improvements can and need to be made. Is the channel strategy appropriate? Do the brands get enough support in their marketing efforts? Do the office paper buyers understand that the things our brands are good at are important? Is the perception of the brand’s performance fair? Why have other brands with a similar positioning as ours been able to achieve more than our brand?

You can learn more by ordering the “Brand Equity Tracking Survey – Office Paper 2011”. The survey is based on 3 000 interviews with professional end-users of office paper (in SOHO, SMEs and corporations) in 10 European countries (Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden). The survey has an overall purpose to identify and annually track: Brand Awareness, Brand Performance, Brand Loyalty and Brand Equity measured through Opticom’s Brand Equity Index (BEI).
In addition to issues directly related to brand equity, the 2011 edition of the survey also studies buying behaviour by looking at buying determinants and drivers for brand choice, relevant communication and purchasing channels, as well as how professional purchasers of office paper view environmental friendliness and which brands that are leading in that respect.

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