Defaqto’s Star Ratings an industry success

Defaqto’s Star Ratings for 2008 have been more widely adopted by providers than ever before. The ratings, which have become the most authoritative and impartial guide to product quality available, cover products in the banking, protection, investment, pension and general insurance areas.

In January Defaqto undertook the huge task of analysing the quality of just under 2,200 products in 24 separate product areas from 550 different suppliers. Defaqto used a set of quality criteria to assess each product in each particular area. From this analysis Defaqto was able to score each product and then assign it a Star Rating. The ratings ranged from five stars down to one star.

In total Defaqto assigned 252 Five Star ratings, 360 Four Stars, 571 Three Stars, 498 Two Stars and 511 One Star.

Defaqto licenses companies to use the rating in their promotional material and so far this year, Defaqto has licensed the use of 140 Five Star Ratings.

Brian Brown, Head of Insight at Defaqto said: “A Five Star rating enables companies to demonstrate to consumers that their products have reached the highest tier of quality. The rating, with its associated logo, is becoming a well-known statement of product quality in the market as more and more companies adopt it into their marketing plans.

“With the ever-growing emphasis on product cost, product quality has been in danger of being excluded from the purchase decision. A Five Star Rating helps to address this imbalance by identifying for consumers products which have been independently assessed for quality.”