Tayto again tops Red C brand poll

Tayto – the cheese and onion snack long synonymous with Ireland – has again topped this year’s Red C Brand Reaction Index (BRI) tracking emotional connection with 196 brands across a host of categories. Tayto has been a shared cultural ritual for generations – part of everyday life, from crisp sandwiches in lunchboxes to picnic baskets and social gatherings.

Founded in 1954 in Dublin by Joe ‘Spud’ Murphy, Tayto was later bought by Ray Coyle’s Largo Foods. More recently, it was acquired by German company Intersnack. Primark-owned low-priced clothes retailer Penneys, a new entrant to the survey, was in second place for allowing consumers “enjoy small indulgences without compromise”.

The strongest brands build connection through five key drivers:

• Presence – They become part of everyday life, weaving themselves into routines, habits and rituals.
• Emotion – They create positive emotional shortcuts. Whether through enjoyment, pride, comfort or nostalgia, they make people feel something.
• Trust – They earn loyalty through consistency. By delivering reliably over time, they become familiar, dependable and easy choices.
• Culture & Identity – They become part of conversations, traditions and shared experiences, reinforcing a sense of identity and belonging.
• Distinctiveness – They stand for something unique. Consumers know who they are, what they represent and what makes them different.

Behavioural and marketing scientists, including Gerd Gigerenzer and researchers at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute in Australia, have shown that brands are more likely to be chosen when they are both mentally and physically available, easy to recognise and capable of generating positive associations.

While recall and recognition help ensure brands are brought to mind and stand out at the point of choice, Red C’s Brand Reaction Index focuses on the emotional response that reinforces preference. It evaluates consumers’ implicit reactions to brands, providing insight into this powerful System 1 driver of brand choice.

Value

Dunnes and Lidl moved up the the rankings to third and fourth place respectively. Lidl’s emotional connection with consumers is in delivering value when household budgets remain under pressure. It has also made shopping easier and more rewarding through innovations such as self-service checkouts and Lidl Plus, and its GAA sponsorship of the LGFA.

The Wild Atlantic Way was in fifth place, followed by Home Store+More, Netflix, The Credit Union, An Post and Brennans Bread.

The Top 50 Brands 

Read the full Red C report here