• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 14, 2022

Top consumer brand loyalty rankings these days revolve around popular products we keep a close eye on -- smartphones, streaming, social media, and of course, pizza.

On the streaming front, we had a bit of a flip flop -- with Netflix falling a bit and Disney+ climbing, according to Brand Keys 2022 annual “loyalty’ survey. 

Disney is now in the fourth spot overall among 100 top brands, rising from sixth place a year ago. Netflix has dropped to 8th place from third place overall. But this should not be viewed too negatively: It's in eighth place among 100 top brands.

Top loyalty? Apple has ascended to become the top overall brand -- up from number two -- when it comes to smartphones. It replaced Amazon (for retail), which moved down a notch to number two. Domino’s moved up to third place -- up from fourth.

Two of the biggest gainers year-over-year, according to the survey, are MSNBC and Apple TV+ -- moving to 12th place and 14th place, respectively. The linear TV news network was 31st a year ago, while the Apple streamer came in at 26th place. 

To no one’s surprise, high-flying social media app, TikTok soared to 5th place from the 21st spot.

Going in the other direction  -- perhaps now with the perception of older-skewing social media platforms:  Instagram, dropping to 15th place (from 9th); Facebook at 46th (from 29th); Twitter, 47th (from 38th); YouTube (for social networking) went down five places to 21st (from 16th).

Other notable media brands: Amazon, for its video streaming is down to 10th place (from 5th), while Hulu has slipped to 23rd place (from 18th place a year ago); Fox News Channel, 29th place (vs. 28th in 2021); HBO Max, 41st (vs. 40th place a year ago); and Paramount+ to 51st place, making the list for the first time.

The survey was conducted from data gathered on 68,125 men and women ages 16 to 65. Loyalty rankings for the top 100 brands come out of the 1,624 among 142 industry categories.

At the bottom of the list are Uber (99th) and then Tesla (100th). Good news for those companies is that 1,524 brands are farther back.

All considered, consumer surveys should be looked at with lots of room for interpretation -- or, for some, with a salt mine of skepticism. Or pizza.