Woolworths has registered the biggest boost in Word of Mouth (WOM) Exposure in Australia for the month of January of all the brands we track in the market. Data from YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks consumer perceptions toward brands on a daily basis worldwide, shows that the proportion of people who are talking about the supermarket chain saw an uplift of 10.9 percentage points during the four-week period.
Woolworths (as well as Big W) recently announced that they would no longer stock products specific to Australia Day, due to a "gradual decline in community demand". In response to the move, Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton called on Australians to “boycott Woolworths”, which he accused of "peddling woke agendas" and "trying to cancel Australia Day".
According to data from YouGov BrandIndex, Woolworths’ WOM Exposure score rose from 36.0 on 6 January to 46.9 by 31 January. WOM exposure is a BrandIndex metric that measures the percentage of people who have spoken with their family or friends about a particular brand in the previous two weeks.
Additionally, Google-owned video sharing platform YouTube recorded a six-point spike in WOM Exposure from 29.8 on 1 January to 35.8 by 31 January, while grocery chain Aldi saw its WOM Exposure climb 5.7 points from 27.3 on 5 January to 33.0 by 24 January.
Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. A brand’s WOM Exposure score is based on the question: “Which of the following brands have you talked about with friends and family in the past two weeks (whether in person, online, or through social media)?” (% Yes). Data from surveys of adults aged 18 years and above residing in Australia from 1 to 31 January 2024. WOM Exposure scores are based on a four-week moving average, with the change in scores for each brand calculated by taking the difference between the highest and lowest scoring days within the period. Learn more about BrandIndex.
Cover photo by Matheus Cenali
