Study shows: real,- has clearly improved its brand value

Second-greatest increase of all 60 retail companies evaluated in BBDO study

Moenchengladbach, 10th June 2009 – Germany’s leading superstore company, real,-, has succeeded in significantly increasing its brand value since 2007. That is the result of a current study by the international management consultancy firm BBDO Consulting. In the ranking of the 60 most important retail companies real,- was one of the strongest improvers: “The two biggest winners in comparison with 2007 are the electronics retailer Saturn (increased brand strength by 1.12 points) and the supermarket real,- (increased brand strength by 0.94 points),” according to BBDO.

The ranking is based on the current study entitled “Retail Brands in Germany – Brand Strengths and Brand Images 2009”, which provides an overview of the quality of brand management in the German retail sector. In the study, real,- has not only considerably improved, but it now also ranks ahead of all direct competitors. Overall, real,- managed to improve its ranking by 18 places in comparison to the last survey in 2007, moving up to 12th place.

“In the last two years, real,- has managed to increase its brand strength significantly, which can be mainly attributed to the clear improvements in rationally exploiting its brand. The company is benefitting from the successful brand relaunch and the intensive commu-nications measures supporting it. Both the company’s new own brand strategy and its service commitment, which is oriented towards the diversity of the product range, are perceived positively by customers,” according to the study.

In the words of Joël Saveuse, Chairman of the Management Board of real,-: “This result shows that our overall concept to strengthen the real,- brand is working. The efforts of our 50,000 employees in Germany play a particular role in this.”