The top brands in 2013: YouGov's BrandIndex

Today's City AM free newspaper had an article about the top brands of 2013 in the UK. It was taken from a source I'd never heard of before: YouGov's BrandIndex website.

Thousands of interviews are carried out daily to identify the best known brands. The UK brand rankings listed as the top ten:

1.iplayer [broadcasting]
2 John Lewis [retailer]
2 Samsung [electronics]
4 Aldi [food retailer]
5 Dyson [consumer products]
6 Marks and Spencer [retailer]
7 bbc.co.uk [broadcasting]
8 Waitrose [food retailer]
9 Sainsbury's [food retailer]
10 YouTube

No Apple, as the newspaper article pointed out (it was no. 6 last year).

The top 25 US brand rankings, of which the top ten are:

1 Amazon [online retailer]
2 Ford [car manufacturer]
3 Subway [takeout food retailer]
4 History [broadcasting]
5 Lowe's [retailer]
6 YouTube [broadcasting]
7 Walgreens [retailer]
8 V8 [vegetable drinks]
9 Cheerios [breakfast cereal]
10 Kindle [e-book reader]

Again no Apple.

Older figures are given, and even rankings within sectors. A dozen other countries such as Germany, France, China and Japan are also available.

It is clear that "brand" is widely interpreted, and while some of the names or words are trademarked some may not be. I'm very surprised that online sites such as Amazon aren't more prominent for the UK. Samsung's strength in the UK doesn't surprise me -- I myself have one of their Android phones (it could work better, though) and one of their laptops. A lot depends on how the interviews are conducted -- do those interviewed volunteer names or are they prompted, is it only knowing a brand rather than approving of it that matters. I must admit I'm amazed a breakfast cereal made it into the top ten for the US.

The site is worth exploring -- there's a list of the top five social media sites for the US, for example.