Microsoft Tops Brand Poll
A survey has revealed multinational computer technology corporation Microsoft as the number one brand in the UK.
Brand monitoring group Superbrands surveyed 3,000 consumers for its annual rankings, which put Microsoft top, followed by Coca-Cola, Google, the BBC, BP, British Airways, Lego, Guinness, Mercedes-Benz and Cadbury. Brands falling out of the top 10 this year included Porsche, Marks & Spencer, Heinz and Duracell.
“The UK public clearly love Microsoft which performs strongly amongst all consumer groups, although relative newcomer Google is becoming a major challenger,” said the chairman of the business Superbrands council, Stephen Cheliotis.
“The performance of well established brands such as Coca-Cola, Lego and BP highlights their ongoing strength and rapport with the consumers.”
However, Superbrands’ separate survey of media and marketing experts did not even put Microsoft in the top 10.
The panel of 20 industry pundits voted Google top, followed by Apple and then the technology group’s iPod. Only Coca-Cola, Google and the BBC were in both the public and industry watchers’ top 10 lists.
“It will be interesting to see whether the council is a lead indicator of what the consumers might say next year,” said Cheliotis.
The public survey, conducted by YouGov, showed men and women ranked many of the same brands top.
One of the notable differences in opinion saw champagne brand Moët & Chandon making the women’s top 10, whilst Guinness made the men’s list.
“The greatest difference in voting positions between men and women confirms that women clearly rate high quality lifestyle brands whilst their male counterparts voted in considerably higher numbers for more everyday functional brands,” said the survey.
“Wall’s ice cream tops this list with men placing the brand 265 places higher than the women; on the other hand more women than men voted Swarovski a Superbrand, placing it 355 places higher.”
Young and older generations are set apart most markedly by alcohol. The 18-24 category included Smirnoff, Bacardi and Jack Daniel’s in its top 10. The over-65s voted traditional brands including Wedgwood, Parker and Clarks into their top 10, but also picked Google and Nike.
Within the media sector, Google was the top internet brand, followed by eBay, Yahoo! and MSN. The Times topped the newspaper and magazines rankings, followed by the Financial Times, Vogue and National Geographic.
Among TV and radio broadcasters, the BBC was first, followed by Sky, ITV, Channel 4 and CNN. In technology and telecommunications, Nokia ranked highest, followed by Vodafone, Orange and O2.
The survey was carried out before the February launch of Virgin Media. However, it did cover Telewest and NTL, which merged and bought Virgin Mobile to become Virgin Media (see Virgin Media Launches Today). Both Telewest and NTL scored below the top 1,000 brands.
Microsoft: 0870 60 10 100 www.microsoft.com/uk