• by Tanya Gazdik , March 21, 2018

Apple again is tops in “brand intimacy,” followed by Amazon and BMW, according to a report by MBLM.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Jeep, Disney, YouTube, Target, Netflix, Whole Foods and Google, according to MBLM’s Brand Intimacy 2018 Report, which is the largest study of brands based on emotions. Brand Intimacy is defined as “a new paradigm that leverages and strengthens the emotional bonds between a person and a brand.”

“Our collective need to escape, cocoon and be entertained is growing, particularly with those 35 and under,” said Mario Natarelli, MBLM managing partner, in a release. “Brands that are optimizing content for our preferences dominated in 2017 by creating strong bonds and powerful connections. We expect this trend to continue in 2018.”

Notably, Apple and Amazon built bonds across all age groups, and each ranked within the top five for each group. Apple also was the number one brand in both Mexico and the UAE.

The media and entertainment industry ranked first overall for the first time, triumphing over automotive. Retail was the number one industry for women, media and entertainment was the number one industry for men.

Top intimate brands in the U.S. continued to surpass the top brands in the Fortune 500 and S&P indices in revenue and profit over the past 10 years, according to 

The average revenue growth from 2007-2016 was 9.5% for the top 10 most intimate brands, compared to 4.37% for Fortune 500 top brands and 4.59%for top S&P companies. The average profit growth during this same time period was 19.14% for brand intimate companies, compared to 15.46% for Fortune 500 companies and 4.59% for S&P companies.

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.