Best-loved brands list: tech giant takes top spot

Apple dominates social conversation as most loved on brands list, with Google in second place and Lego third, says report.

Apple is the UK and Europe’s most loved brand and dominates social conversation, according to a Brand Lovelist report launched last month by social analytics platform NetBase.

‘Love, best, great, perfect and awesome’ were the top five words consumers used when expressing their admiration for Apple which received over 400,000 more mentions than Google in second place and seven times as many total mentions as Lego in third. Tesco in fourth place was the first British and only food and beverage brand to feature and BMW was the first automotive brand to appear at number 5 on the brands list.

The report looks at the top 50 brands in Europe determined by market research over the past year and ranks the best-loved brands in technology, consumer goods, automotive, food and beverage, financial services and energy. Data was gathered using NetBase’s social media listening platform, from millions and millions of English and French language posts of earned mentions (i.e. those posts that were not posted by the brand itself) across Europe during the one-year period April 2015 to March 2016. Brand conversation specific to the UK and France was analysed in English and French respectively to provide two lists of the 25 most loved British and French brands.

Paige Leidig, chief marketing officer, NetBase, said: “While it’s not altogether surprising that Apple came out on top, if we look beneath the surface it tells us that here is a company that has created an enviable passion among its consumers.

“Alternatively, look at Tesco, why is it the only food and beverage brand on the list, where are the likes of Lidl and Sainsbury? The answer is because it has worked hard to build a strong relationship with its customers and they want to express their love for it.

“Understanding consumer preference is more than simply measuring the volume of social media content, it’s about understanding the intensity of passion and feeling in those posts. Most consumer purchases are won on emotion and the Brand Lovelist measures brand love and every single version of it; it tells us which brands people love the most.

“Furthermore, it highlights the importance of having insightful customer data that you can act upon whether it’s a new campaign, product launch or purely understanding ongoing customer perception of your brand.”

Key UK insights from the brands list report include:

• Lego was the UK’s most loved consumer goods brand
  Lego came out on top as the most loved consumer goods brand with consumers sharing their excitement towards #Starwars themed lego and underlining the value that partnering plays in leveraging a strong brand presence. Consumer goods companies represented 28% of the most loved brands in the UK and included the likes of Adidas, Chanel and Burberry.
• The UK loves cars!
  Automotive brands rule the love list with a total of nine appearing, including BMW, Ferrari and Audi, which were the top loved brands. Despite this, they only represented 16% of the overall conversation indicating that consumers have similar levels of love for car brands as they do for other industries.
• Tesco was the only food and beverage brand on the list
  Tesco’s presence illustrated the importance of running targeted campaigns. #Triedforless was a campaign that invited customers to share some of their favourite experiences with Tesco products via social media and was the most popular hashtag associated with the brand.
• The UK loves talking about travel destinations
  British Airways was the only airline in the list and conversation was centred on passengers sharing stories about flying to their favourite destinations. Transportation represented just 1% of overall mentions on the list and, while consumers often share experiences of their travels, airlines could certainly do more to encourage consumer love through promotional campaigns.
• The UK are tech talkers
  Unsurprisingly, technology companies dominated the conversation and accounted for 12% of the top 25 most loved UK brands – mainly down to Apple and Google, which alone represented 64% of the overall UK brand mentions.