Brands With 'Cultural Vibrancy,' Like Google At No. 1, Grab Public Excitement

Technology brands are making the most powerful connections with consumers.

The WPP brand consultancy Added Value study evaluates what the firm describes as the “cultural vibrancy” of brands. That’s determined by assessing how brands are perceived by respondents in terms of their vision, inspiration, boldness and to what degree people get “excited” by a brand and its offerings. The findings are analyzed to create so-called “Vibe” scores that are assigned to each brand.

This year 160 brands were evaluated across 15 business sectors. That’s an expansion versus last year’s study which looked at just 50 brands across nine sectors.

Tech brands accounted for six of the top 10 places in this year’s ranking. Google dethroned Apple for the No. 1 position while the latter dropped to No. 2. Samsung, Ikea and Microsoft rounded out the top five,respectively. In order, Sony, BMW, Audi, Coca-Cola and eBay rounded out the top 10.

Falling out of the top 10 in this year’s study were Amazon, Facebook, Harley-Davidson and Subway. Last year they placed 3rd, 6th, 8th and 10th, respectively.

“Today, more than ever, it is critical that brands stay apace of culture,” stated Maggie Taylor, CEO, Added Value. “It’s one thing to be a culturally vibrant brand in one part of the world. It’s another to maintain that vibrancy at high amplitude across the whole world.”

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Entitled "The Cultural Traction," the study was based on a survey of 65,000 respondents in ten countries: the U.S., China, France, Germany, Italy, U.K., Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong and Singapore. The 2013 report is the third annual installment of the study. Lightspeed Research conducted the online survey on behalf of Added Value.

More on the study can be found here.

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