Scandinavians put travel plans on hold with SAS

SAS is facing some significant challenges these days. Using YouGov BrandIndex, we have analyzed how consumer perception is affected in Scandinavia.

SAS has created many media headlines after the Swedish government announced that it would not inject any more cash into the Scandinavian carrier. Even though the Danish government has agreed to retain and potentially increase their shares, the problems are not over for SAS with a newly announced strike. In Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, SAS pilots have announced a strike concerning their wages starting June 29^th – one week into the school holidays.

YouGov’s BrandIndex Buzz score measures whether people have heard anything positive or negative about a brand. When news broke about the future of SAS and the strike, SAS’s buzz score dipped in all of Scandinavia. From an average of 7.4 at the beginning of the year to -21.3 in June.

The negative publicity also impacts other facets of SAS’ brand health.

The index score, which measures overall brand health, also took a hit. SAS had an Index score of + 24.3 in Denmark, +26.9 in Sweden, and +26.9 in Norway at the beginning of the year but has now dropped more than 10 points to +12.5 in Denmark and +11.8 in Sweden in June. The drop is even more significant in Norway, where SAS had a negative index score of -2.3 in June.

Consideration has also been negatively affected by the recent media publicity and uncertainty. The YouGov BrandIndex data shows that only 19.4% of Scandinavians now consider SAS when they are in the market to book a flight. In comparison, 29.6% of Scandinavians thought of SAS when they were in the market to book a flight at the beginning of the year.

Methodology

Each day consumers are asked about their views on brands across various markets, which allows YouGov to build a picture of how the general public perceives these brands by comparing Index scores – which is a measure of overall brand health calculated by taking the average of Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend and Reputation by YouGov BrandIndex.​

• Impression – whether someone has a positive or negative impression of a brand​
• Quality – whether consumers think the brand represents good or poor quality​
• Value – whether consumers think the brand represents good or poor value for money​
• Satisfaction – whether someone is a satisfied or dissatisfied customer​
• Recommend – whether someone would recommend a brand to a friend or not​
• Reputation – whether someone is proud or embarrassed to work for a brand

The Buzz score asks respondents, “If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news, or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” Scores are net scores calculated by subtracting the percentage of negative responses from the percentage of positive responses for each brand.

Data is from January 1, 2022, to June 16, 2022.