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Quality + Value

From Amazon to Ozempic, the brands Americans think are the best and worst

The sweet spot is up and to the right.

Rani Molla

The price of everyday items is a big deal for Americans. Inflation helps shape consumers’ attitudes about how the economy is doing, and played a role in influencing the recent US election. That makes people’s feelings about how much the brands they buy are worth especially important for those companies.

Survey firm YouGov asked more than 19,000 Americans about their opinions of more than 2,000 major brands, including their value for the money, their quality, and whether they’d consider purchasing those brands.

The vast majority of those — 1,936 — received a positive score for both quality and value.

“I think that’s reflective of these very well-established brands that have got long heritages and have been in market a long time,” YouGov Head of Marketing, Americas, Reuben Staines told Sherwood News. “If they were failing on those two counts, they’d probably not survive.”

We charted a selection of these companies based on net quality and net value. The more positive a value, for example, the higher percentage of people there were who said the brand was a good value, rather than bad. The size of the circle represents what percentage of Americans would purchase them.

Generally, a brand would want to find themselves with a large circle in the top right quadrant, like Amazon. Some 80% of survey respondents consider purchasing from Amazon, and it enjoys a very high perception of value and quality.

However, there are some successful outliers.

Dollar Tree and Dollar General both have a reasonably high value and low quality — but that’s kinda what they’re going for. Amazon competitor Temu would probably hope for a better value ranking, even if its quality isn’t as important to customers.

Rolex isn’t considered a great value, but its quality isn’t in question. People consider Starbucks, and to a lesser extent Jaguar as well as Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, to have reasonable quality but a bad value. That’s potentially sustainable since they, for some, offer products that are more of a luxury than a necessity

Then there are companies in or near the bottom left quadrant — a bad place to be.

That includes Spirit Airlines, which recently filed for bankruptcy. Ticketmaster and Tesla are both in dangerous territory, since their quality isn’t great and they’re considered a bad value for the price.

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Saleah Blancaflor

Prediction markets give slight edge to Netflix in Warner Bros. battle after eventful week

The ongoing bidding war between Paramount and Netflix for the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery had some significant news this week that could change the outcome:  

  • Things kicked off Tuesday, when WBD said in a statement it would resume talks with Paramount Skydance to consider its best and final offer after Netflix allowed a seven-day waiver. The WBD board continues to “unanimously recommend” the merger with Netflix, while the streaming service will retain its rights to match or exceed any forthcoming offer from Paramount. The negotiation period ends on February 23.

  • IndieWire reporter Brian Welk talked to a few experts about whether the new developments bring clarity to the ongoing bidding war. One professor said without Paramount offering its “best and final offer,” the company loses credibility, while another professor said it makes Netflix look even more confident. 

  • Lightshed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield said on his podcast that Paramount will have to raise its offer to as high as $36 to $37 per share. (The company has stuck to $30.) In comparison, Netflix’s initial offer is for $27.75 a share to buy the studio and streaming service, while Paramount is bidding to buy the whole company. 

  • Semafor reported Thursday morning that some Democratic senators are “unhappy” with the fact that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison refused to attend a hearing two weeks ago, and could launch an investigation into the deal if they retake the Senate.

  • Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Netflix has “ample cash” and could increase its offer for WBD if Paramount beefs up its own offer, according to sources. 

  • Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently appeared on a recent episode of “The Town with Matthew Belloni” to reiterate that he doesn’t plan on ruining WBD’s theatrical business model and promised to keep the 45-day theatrical window for WBD films, which could appease opposition from theater owners.

  • Variety reported that there’s been a shift among WBD employees who now support Netflix’s acquisition, though there’s still some skepticism among others.

WBD shareholders are still set to vote on the proposed Netflix merger next month, on March 20. Despite the renewed talks with Parmount, as of Friday at 12:45 p.m. ET, prediction markets speculating on who will ultimately come out on top have recently flipped to give the edge back to Netflix, pricing in a 46% chance over Paramount’s 44% odds. 

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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