Tech companies lead the way in the world’s most loved brands list compiled by NetBase, with Facebook being at the very top of the new chart. The dominance of tech brands is shown in the 10 Most Loved Global Brands list, with the top five being Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Apple, and Snapchat maker Snap, in that order. The rest of the top ten entails Disney, Pokémon GO, Etsy, Netflix, and Sony. While Pokémon GO is considered to be a brand of Nintendo, the latter ranks lower at number 12. Referring to the results of the report, NetBase’s chief marketing officer Paige Leidig noted the dominance of tech companies, and also the mixture of new and old firms making up the 100 most popular brands on the planet.
The report covers a period from May 2016 through July 2017 across several different categories including financial services, telecommunications, consumer goods, automotive, and technology, among others. In the “Companies that Showed the Greatest Change” section, Target’s popularity increased by 473 percent, bringing the company up to the 18th spot out of 100. T-Mobile (56) also featured in this section with a notable rise in popularity of 164 percent. Meanwhile, companies making “Rookies of the Year” debuts include the aforementioned Snap (5), Uber (11), Lyft (27), and Hulu (63). Under the individual telecommunications category, T-Mobile achieves the highest position (56 ) while AT&T is the second most popular carrier (69). Best Buy is the top retailer (16) with Target close behind (18), while Ford tops the automotive category (19) ahead of Tesla (28).
NetBase’s latest report was compiled using social analytics technology across the social web including mentions on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, and many other sources. Four factors were used to map the NetBase survey, including passion intensity on a scale of zero to 100, the volume of earned and owned mentions, net sentiment covering customer service, products, and marketing on a scale of -100 to 100, and BPI (Brand Passion Index). Measuring love rather than ‘like’ for a brand can provide valuable insight as the price of products and services becomes less important in the consumers’ decision-making process, NetBase claims. On a wider note, only three countries — the United States, Germany, and Japan — made up 83 percent of the firm’s latest list.