When we ask the French which brands they prefer, some brands stand out from the rest. This is the lesson we can draw from the 2024 edition of the ranking prepared by EY Parthenon. Firstly, with the champions of all categories sharing the podium for the third consecutive year. Action, Decathlon and Leroy Merlin.
Among these three favorites of the French, there are the two French icons who have monopolized the first places for years and a Dutch actor – Action – who arrived in France in 2012 and who only occupied ninth position in 2020. A brand that prevails in the hearts of the French with a simple recipe: reduced prices, even on products from well-known brands.
Action, Leclerc and Leroy Merlin crush their competitors
In the specific ranking of bazaar brands, Action crushes all its rivals in terms of image. Almost one in two consumers (45.7%) prefer it to all others. And the second most mentioned brand, Gifi, is very far away (9.6%).
The same goes for mass distribution, where competition is enormous. E.Leclerc is, as expected, the favorite supermarket chain of three in ten French people, well ahead of Carrefour (12.7%) and Lidl (12.7%). Once again, this clear victory is due to a strategy based on the “price” image. We prefer Leclerc because we believe their stores offer a wide variety and cheaper products. This preference is reflected in the actual attendance of hypermarkets and supermarkets. Leclerc is the brand that has gained the most market share in recent years.
The same rule applies to Leroy Merlin, which far surpasses its competitors in the ranking of the French’s favorite DIY brands (39.4% compared to 11.2% for Brico Dépôt and 190.8% for Castorama) and that presents market shares of the same order.
Picard largely dominates in food but its sales are stagnating
However, the correlation between shown preference and actual attendance is not verified in all sectors. This is Picard, a specialized food brand preferred today by 31.2% of French people. The number of his fans has continued to grow in recent years. However, the French king of frozen foods faces stagnation in sales from 2022. In other words, we can prefer Picard, but to supply the refrigerator-freezer, for the moment, we opt for Leclerc.
Another special case: that of fashion brands. Vinted, the largest clothing seller in France, is undoubtedly the favorite brand of the French, but with its 8% followers, it does not really widen the gap with its rivals. The Zalando coast (6.7%), Zara (6.2%), which comes just behind, is overall almost comparable. This is the particularity of this universe, where, at the moment, we do not really see a marked preference for this or that brand.
Source: BFM TV
