Europe’s fastest growing brands; what are they getting right?

Lauren Miles, Senior Account and Marketing Executive at Mando, explores the most successful European brands, what they have in common and what they’re doing to stay on top.

For the past few years the Financial Times has compiled a list of the fastest growing brands in Europe. Interestingly the latest list has only 3 companies in the top 20 that were there the previous year.

This year’s top 20 list apart from 1 company have all been found in 2007 or later. Taking the number one spot this year is London based start-up Deliveroo founded in 2013. They registered revenue growth of 107,117% from 2013 – 2016. The top 20 have a wide range of sectors including Food & Drink, Technology, Travel & Leisure and Construction to name just a few. The European countries the companies in the top 20 were founded in is also diverse; 5 from the UK, 5 Spanish, 5 German, 3 French, 1 Czech Republic and 1 Dutch.

The companies getting it right all have one thing in common. Convenience. When thinking about promotions, convenience is key. Route of entry is the first port of call, and if this isn’t clear or convenient for your customer, they are not going to engage with your brand. Having a simple route of entry such as entering a URN online and having an instant win or click to win mechanic ensures maximum engagement from consumers and the strengthening of a brand / consumer relationship. Any barriers to entry such as needing to upload a till receipt or a delay in being able to enter will significantly deteriorate consumer engagement rates.

Customers want a more convenient streamlined life with as little hassle and stress as possible. They want to make a choice and want their chosen option to arrive on their doorstep at a time to suit them. Companies that want to have an impact on the European market must consider how they can make things as easy as possible for their customers to access their brand and product and how easily they can then get the end product to the customer, no matter what industry they are in.

Here are the companies getting convenience right:

Deliveroo

Forbes reports that Deliveroo averaged around 25% month on month growth over the last few years. Deliveroo tapped into the niche market of people wanting food delivered at a convenient time, often from restaurants or cafes that don’t offer delivery themselves. William Shu the founder put his idea in to practice after repeatedly wanting something delicious for lunch but being unable to leave his desk and none of his preferred lunch places delivered.

iTravex

iTravex is a Spanish travel and leisure company founded 12 years ago in 2007. They sit at number 5 on the list. They are an all in one high end travel agent with an online and offline booking engine, able to organise trips and excursions. Currently iTravex is only available for trips in Spain but with their significant growth and multi-lingual employees, it can only be a matter of time before they begin to expand across Europe.

HelloFresh

HelloFresh the well-known meal-kit start up founded in Germany dropped 17 places this year from 1^st to 18^th but still made it into the top 20. Founded in 2011, they rapidly expanded nationally and then in 2012 into the UK, US and Australia. By 2014, HelloFresh were delivering over 1 million meals per month. They deliver meal-kits to people who don’t want to think about what they are going to cook each night.