They Say All PR Is Good PR

Which brands are the best and worst according to YouGov?

YouGov's just-released ranking of America's best-perceived brands—and those that dropped to the very bottom of it include Chipotle, Wells Fargo, Samsung and the Trump Taj Mahal. Adweek reports on the ranking and says that in the last year these brands all suffered bad publicity and as a result their consumer perceptions plummeted.    

Before the rise of social media and the internet a company could use its advertising to build and sway the perceptions of the consuming public. But as the report says, today how a customer regards a brand is a function of all the chatter out there: advertising, news and buzz (good or bad) and that if the buzz is bad, those ad and marketing dollars don’t seem to help. YouGov conducts about 1.2 million interviews with consumers a year, asking them what they think of some 1,500 brands. 

Who are the biggest losers? Chipotle tops the list followed by Wells fargo, Samsung and one of Trump’s hotel casinos. 

Who are the top 5?  Brands that didn’t even exist a decade or so ago. #1 is Amazon, followed by Netflix, YouTube, Google and the traditional retailer Lowe’s. Not one supermarket banner made the top ten, which should make us work just a bit harder when it comes to branding the channel that people shop in more than any other. 

YouGov points out that Amazon, which ranked No. 1 for two years, not only stays top of mind with consumers with a world of product offerings and fast delivery, it continues to diversify its brand—most recently, with Echo and Alexa—which only adds to the buzz the company gets already. 

What’s your buzz?