The Los Angeles-headquartered company was honoured with the Brand of the Year Award from market researcher Harris Interactive following its annual brand equity poll.
"Neutrogena has always been known for gentle skin care, and we already observed in the cosmetics categories how brands with a skin care heritage, including Neutrogena, fare well,” says Joan Sinopoli, a senior vice president and senior consultant with Harris Interactive's Custom Solutions Group.
“So it's no surprise that Neutrogena would become the Sun Screen Brand of the Year."
The result comes as part of the analyst’s Harris Poll EquiTrend study which measures the brand equity of cosmetic products.
Mix it up
The top four sun care brands with the strongest equity were an odd mix of traditional, no-frills, and mass class brands; displaying the diversity of the market.
Neutrogena Suncare, this year's Harris Poll EquiTrend Sun Screen Brand of the Year, emerges from the mass class group.
According to New York-based Harris, Neutrogena’s status is attributable to high scores in equity metrics such as Quality and Trust. Also, “consumers display a stronger willingness to recommend Neutrogena than any other brand in the category.”
However, with sun screen being increasingly expensive, it is not surprising to see the more affordable No-Ad Suncare brand taking second place in the rankings.
Other brands rounding out the Sun Screen category are Coppertone Suncare and Banana Boat Suncare.
Brand equity
The Harris Poll EquiTrend is a brand equity tracking study that measures and compares brand health for more than 1,500 brands.
The study analyzes the responses of over 38,500 consumers on key measures of brand health - including how well the public knows a brand, how positively they think of the brand and their consideration to do business with or donate to a brand.
The US consumer survey also suggests that many mass market cosmetics brands can give premium brands a serious run for their money.