Google And Apple Brands Take A Hit In Brand Reputation Poll, Amazon Holds On Top Spot

The 2018 Harris Poll for reputation is out, see the brands that jumped and those that took a hit 

According to the annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient poll released on Tuesday, Apple (dropped to 29^th from 5^th the previous year and 2^nd in 2016) and Google parent company Alphabet (dropped to 28^th from 8^th the previous year) corporate brands took a hit this year even though another American rival Amazon continued to hold on to the top spot for the third time in a row. Elon Musk’s Tesla saw some improvement this year following the hype around it sending the red Roadster into space.

Speaking to Reuters, John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll said “the likely reason Apple and Google fell was that they have not introduced as many attention-grabbing products as they did in past years, such as when Google rolled out free offerings like its Google Docs word processor or Google Maps and Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, iPhone and iPad.”

“Google and Apple, at this moment, are sort of in valleys. We’re not quite to self-driving cars yet. We’re not yet seeing all the things in artificial intelligence they’re going to do.”

Elon Musk’s Tesla moved from No. 9 to No. 3 on the news of sending that sportscar into space and  not on individual quality. So it then appears that it’s all about hypes and attentions grabbing innovations and news. This may be why Gerzama described Elon Musk as “a modern-day carnival barker – it’s incredible,” and said such “attitude is able to capture the public’s imagination when every news headline is incredibly negative. They’re filling a void of optimism.”

So does this mean some don’t think we are still in an era of fascinating innovations? Not quite as it appears to be all about media hypes and that’s what almost everything is about these days from politics to technology. If you can get media minds to keep talking about a product even before launch, the human mind will be more inclined to buying it. That’s just how it is and this has been a time tested marketing strategy.

Facebook ranked 51^st following which is its best since the 38^th position it ranked in 2014. Facebook has taken a hit following all the 2016 election complaints accusing it of not doing much to combat “fake news” that many believed influenced the outcome of the elections.

The Weinstein Company in the wake of sexual assaults came in at 99^th out of a possible 100. Japanese auto parts company Takata Corp claimed the last spot because its airbag faults has been linked to about 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries which led to largest auto recall in history. The company was forced into bankruptcy eventually.

The poll which has been around since 1999 surveyed 25,800 adults between Dec 11^th and 12^th.

See their site for the full list here