Apple remained the undisputed champion, ranking first both in technology and telecommunications as well as overall in the U.S., Mexico and UAE, according to MBLM’s Brand Intimacy 2018 Report, which is the largest study of brands based on emotions.
In the U.S., Google and Samsung rounded out the top three in the industry, which placed fourth out of the 15 analyzed. The remaining brands in the top 10 for the technology & telecommunications industry were: Verizon, LG, Microsoft, Intel, Dell, HP and Sony.
Brand intimacy is defined as a new paradigm that leverages and strengthens the emotional bonds between a person and a brand. For the third year, MBLM’s study revealed that top intimate brands in the U.S. surpassed the top brands in the Fortune 500 and S&P indices in revenue and profit over the past 10 years.
“Apple continues to build powerful bonds with its users, and these bonds have gotten stronger each year of our study,” says Mario Natarelli, managing partner at MBLM. “Apple has made itself indispensable to many users around the world and an essential part of their lives. As a dominant intimate brand, it will be exciting to see what other areas Apple expands into and how other technology brands try to close the gap.”
Other significant technology and telecommunications findings in MBLM’s Brand Intimacy 2018 Report include:
- Technology & telecommunications had an average Brand Intimacy Quotient of 40.1, which is well above the industry average of 27.1.
- Enhancement, the archetype associated with becoming better through use of the brand, was the most prominent in the category, and Google was the top-performing brand for enhancement.
- Apple ranked #1 for both men and women as well as for millennials.
- Google was the preferred brand for those with annual incomes were above $150,000 and was also the #1 brand for daily use.
- Google improved its Brand Intimacy Quotient from the previous year, whereas HP and Samsung declined in this year’s rankings
MBLM also released a detailed article examining Apple’s success, “Analyzing the undisputed champion of Brand Intimacy.” In the article, MBLM discusses its key findings on Apple including that it led the technology & telecommunications industry by more than 20 points in each of the three countries studied.
It was the #1 brand for its percentage of users in the most advanced stage of Brand Intimacy, fusing, which describes a relationship where a person and brand are inexorably linked and co-identified. Each year, Apple has increased its dominance over the second most intimate brand.
To view the technology and telecommunications industry findings, please click here. The full Brand Intimacy 2018 Report and the Ranking Tool can be found here.
This year’s report contains the most comprehensive rankings of brands based on emotion, analyzing the responses of 6,000 consumers and 54,000 brand evaluations across 15 industries in the U.S., Mexico and UAE. MBLM’s reports and interactive Brand Ranking Tool showcase the performance of almost 400 brands, revealing the characteristics and intensity of the consumer bonds.
