Brand Trust Study: Victorinox is the Most Resilient Brand in Switzerland

The strong franc and eroding margins are causing problems for many Swiss companies. What scope for action - beyond cost-cutting - do CEOs and entrepreneurs have in these difficult times? Where does the resilience of companies come from that helps them to restructure their business, enforce prices and keep employees on board? The answer: from the brand. The brand, understood as a management system for appreciation and value creation and not as a cosmetic surface, makes Swiss companies robust.

Victorinox - a real stand-up guy

The best example of this is Victorinox. The family business from Ibach SZ is ranked first in Brandtrust's first ever brand resilience study. Victorinox has proven to be a real stand-up guy: After difficult years, the company has transformed itself in recent years into a global brand for watches, clothing and luggage. With high indispensability, a striking price premium, innovation and loyal brand fans, Victorinox is currently the most resilient brand in Switzerland, followed by Lindt, Ricola, Swatch and Migros.

Protective shield against price erosion

Brands increase price assertiveness, customer loyalty and willingness to recommend. "As a result, they act as a protective shield against the strength of the Swiss franc and price erosion," says study author Achim Feige, Partner at Brand Trust. The study shows which ingredients are necessary for this: genuine Swiss values such as cooperative, family, authenticity, closeness to people, excellence in performance, but also innovation and the idea of 'stubborn' resistance to external threats. "Being indispensable in the lives of customers, thereby achieving a price premium and being 'good' for Switzerland - these are the major optimization potentials for CEOs and brand managers who want to make their companies more resilient," Feige concludes. "New names or hollow creative image campaigns without substance are perceived as cosmetics and drive customers to Euroland."

Note: A Swiss brand is a brand that serves end customers in the Swiss market and is relevant in its sector - regardless of where the owner is based. For this reason, important global challengers such as Google were also included in the study.

Over the past twelve months, Brand Trust has interviewed over 150 CEOs and top decision-makers from 40 industries in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. This formed the basis for determining the criteria of the BrandTrust Resilience Index. On this basis, a total of 20,000 customers and buyers were surveyed on the resilience of 223 brands, including around 5,600 customers and 65 leading brands from 14 market segments in Switzerland. They were not selected solely on the basis of their brand strength. Resilience factors such as future viability and price premium were also important criteria. The study was led by Achim Feige, Partner at Brand Trust.