Apple Gets Good Marks in Recent Studies

by Darcy Richardson Jul 14, 2006

Apple took the tenth place spot in the annual Harris study of top brands according to Americans. This is the computer and digital music company’s first year on the survey, so don’t fret that it made the Top Ten. For the seventh year in a row, Sony is still the country’s number one brand. According to the survey DELL remained the No. 2 brand, and Coca-Cola moved up from last year to claim the third place spot.

2,351 U.S. adults between June 7 and 13 were asked to name the three brands they considered the best—without being provided a list of names, according to MarketWatch.

Half of the top 10 brands are for electronics products, the release pointed out, while three are for automobile and two for consumer and packaged goods.
The top 10 brands, according to the Harris survey:

1. Sony
2. Dell
3. Coca-Cola
4. Toyota
5. Ford
6. Honda
7. Hewlett Packard
8. General Electric
9. Kraft Foods
10. Apple

Chevrolet, Panasonic, Pepsi Cola, Nike and Maytag didn’t make the top 10, but still received a substantial number of mentions, according to the release.
Kraft Foods fell from its No. 3 spot last year to No. 9 this year, while Toyota moved its No. 4 rank from No. 10 last year—those were the two biggest movers in the survey.

Meanwhile, Apple’s rise to the tenth position booted out Microsoft. This is great news out there for Apple enthusiasts because the tenth-place position was what Microsoft shared with Hewlett-Packard last year. Consumers ranked HP’s brand seventh out of all surveyed.

E Week Channel Insider was surprised Sony maintained its brand image in the wake of several scandals that cast the company in a negative light, especially Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s use of digital-rights-management software in November 2005, an action that prompted a consumer suit, Amazon.com refunds for Sony DRM-enabled CDs, and several antivirus companies to target the Sony DRM as malware, dubbing it a rootkit.

“Despite the bad press, Sony remained Harris Poll’s top brand. According to the NPD Group, which tracks retail sales in the U.S., the copy protection scandal put a dent in Sony’s reputation, but not enough for consumers to forget Sony’s history of quality products. ‘Those issues were only recognized by a small segment of the population,’ said Ross Rubin, director of technology industry analysis for NPD. ‘Even with the scandal Sony’s quality innovations still resonated with most consumers who can’t spell DRM.’”

Rubin said that Apple’s expanding stores and the continued success of the iPod led to a great growth in brand recognition.

“Microsoft did not make the top ten this year mainly due to a decrease in marketing and brand visibility,”  Rubin said.

Another reason Apple is making the grade is its continued partnerships with well-known American brands such as Nike. The new Nike + iPod kit was shipped yesterday: I can just see the Los Angelites buying about ten thousand of these. According to a CNBC report, over 30 million Americans have taken up running as a sport and the new system permits users to compare their current statistics to past records and the records of their friends. Never fear, you are no longer chained to the treadmill to know how many miles you ran and calories you sweated off. The fact Apple and Nike are relying on the buzz about this product to generate sales really speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

And to continue with the good polling news, Satmetrix Systems just released a study confirming Apple as the computer company with the most loyal customers. Google was rated best for online services and Symantec was rated best for computer software. The Net Promoter score, used to rate the companies, was created by loyalty expert Fred Reichheld and measures customer experience and profitable growth, using a simple and radical question: How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague? The study was fielded during the first half of 2005.

Comments

  • Even though I admire Apple for booting out M$ from the 10th spot, this “brand awareness” research does not mean a significant amount to either party.

    This market research of thousands of participants is a test of those companies’ advertising prowess, ubiquity, historical longevity, iconical status, etc. and not directly due to their current performances both in their respective markets or market cap (Wall Street’s viewpoint).

    So, Congrats! to Apple for increasing their iconic awareness to the public. Keep those witty advertising going, eh?

    Robomac had this to say on Jul 14, 2006 Posts: 846
  • I like this article. Reading good news concerning Apple always makes a fun read.

    Keep these articles coming.

    grin

    Mac_Man had this to say on Jul 14, 2006 Posts: 14
  • sony in 1st place? well that isnt because of the Vaio. Vaio sucks, i prefer a mac book pro. But considering that sony also makes other multimedia devices, such as TV sets, we see what has put that brand on first place. Portable media devices?, nothing beats the iPod (perhaps those toshiba ones).

    nana had this to say on Jul 15, 2006 Posts: 63
  • Every once in awhile, it’s good to be reminded that those of us who visit sites like this one live in somewhat of a tech/geek-news bubble (and that goes ten-fold for the Apple fanatics).

    I would never vote for Sony because of the DRM root kit debacle, but obviously most people are not aware of this, don’t know what it means, or simply don’t care.

    I do find it interesting that the top brands in America are all about cars, computers, and snacks.  Maybe it is a geek survey after all.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Jul 16, 2006 Posts: 2220
  • If you visit the survey publisher’s site at http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=682 you will learn that the survey participants were not asked to vote on anything - but merely to answer the following question:

    “We would like you to think about brands or names of products and services you know. Considering everything, which three brands do you consider the best?”

    No brands were suggested - respondents provided 3 responses of their own choosing.

    I am not a marketing guru, but I imagine that the results reflect top of mind awareness, the impact of opinion makers (friends, journalists, colleagues and others) and personal experience.

    Sony has a long-established reputation for manufacturing high quality consumer products.  Dell and Coke spend a huge amount on advertising.  Presumably every brand on the list is there because people are continually reminded of the brand and believe the products and services offered are good.

    A high level of brand awareness, accompanied by a positive opinion of the brand, is of immense benefit to the owner of the brand.  Apple’s appearance on this list presumably reflects not only the ubiquitous iPod but also the very positive post-purchase experience of iPod owners.  It cannot hurt that Apple has been constantly in the news or that the new Intel Macs have been very well received indeed (has anyone read a negative report on the Intel Macs?).  It must also be assumed that the Apple advertising is working well - top-of-mind awareness is perhaps the largest factor in a consumer’s consideration of which brands to list.  The reason given for Microsoft’s failure to appear is “mainly due to a decrease in marketing and brand visibility.”

    Far from being a geek survey, this appears to be a traditional consumer survey on the effectiveness of marketing.  And I think that if you were to show the marketing budgets of each brand, I suspect you might find that Apple gets more bang for its buck than most of the others.

    Apple deserves to be on this list.  And, if as I suspect, they are on the list despite spending much much less on advertising than brands which did not make the grade, then this reflects the quality of their products and the positive influence of opinion makers.

    And it is surely better to be on the list because your products are good than because you spend big bucks on advertising.  If Apple have got it right (and to date they seem to being doing everything right) we can expect to see Apple higher on the list in the next survey…

    sydneystephen had this to say on Jul 17, 2006 Posts: 124
  • Maybe it is a geek survey after all.

    nana had this to say on Jul 17, 2006 Posts: 63
  • And I think that if you were to show the marketing budgets of each brand, I suspect you might find that Apple gets more bang for its buck than most of the others.

    And what might you say if turned out not to be the case?  How would you regard THAT as a good thing for Apple, as you undoubtedly would?

    Just curious.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Jul 17, 2006 Posts: 2220
  • lol!

    Well it would be the commitment to us, innit!

    Benji had this to say on Jul 17, 2006 Posts: 927
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