Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has found that Apple’s success is mostly reliant on their “apostles”, a group of loyal customers who are able to influence consumption through word-of-mouth advocacy. What’s interesting is that Apple is not only the most liked brand in the world, but also one of the least liked brands at the same time.
BCG conducted a survey involving 12,000 U.S. consumers and 3,000 Europeans, and ranked the top (and bottom) brands according to popularity with consumers. According to BCG, brand apostles can generate eight times of consumption just by recommending the brand to his peers. This contributed to Apple being ranked no.1, followed by Amazon, Walmart, Netflix, Costco, Samsung, Coca-Cola, Target, Jet Blue, and Chik-Fil-A.
That being said, having the title ‘best liked brand’ can also grant you the title of ‘least liked brand’. Respondents called Apple an elitist and arrogant company, securing the company the no.3 spot on the least favorite brands ranking.
Emotional factors play a big role in the respondent’s brand ranking decision. Respondents said that the popular brands made them feel smart and that they were making good decisions. The product or service’s quality as well as convenience also mattered to them.
BCG concluded its report with a list of strong emerging brands in the tech industry, namely Airbnb, Alibaba, Fitbit, GoPro, Hulu, Oculus Rift, SnapChat, and Tesla as well as Uber.
(Source: ZDNet)
