I heard on a radio talk show this morning a rundown of the top ten U.S. brands in the United States. I joined the conversation as the hosts were about to reveal the list in reverse order, so I didn’t know any of the details associated with the study. Here are the brands:
10. Apple
9. Target
7. Ford
6. Lowe’s
5. Cheerios
4. Google
2. Amazon
1. Subway
It was interesting to hear the commentator’s takes on some of the brands. All expressed surprise at Apple being in the tenth position instead of in the first, second or third spot. They were complimentary of Target and the effort the company made in redesigning their stores and “sweeping the floors.” Discovery Channel raised eyebrows, but one host outlined the strength of their programming and said the shows are very popular.
They breezed by Ford and only mentioned that one of the guys wouldn’t like to see the company ranked sixth because he used to work at their competitor. Cheerios barely registered with the hosts. All thought that Google, like Apple, would own a higher position. They spent some time chatting about the History Channel (now known simply as History) because it was such an unlikely top three…apparently on the strength of reality shows like Pawn Stars.
Amazon surprised no one. The consensus was it’s a powerhouse and they all are very satisfied customers.
Subway at #1? All agreed it had to be because of their pervasive advertising and prodigious media spent. One of the hosts said you couldn’t go 20 minutes without hearing a Subway radio commercial. They love the “Five Dollar Foot Long” jingle and regular pricing promotions. Subway spokesperson Jared received props along with his celebrity friends. The hosts praised the menu, too, one commenting that “you can’t go wrong with a cold cut trio.”
My take
It’s impossible to understand the list. Studying it, I can only make a few assumptions with little confidence. The one oddity I couldn’t ignore is that Cheerios is the only product brand, the others being corporate brands.
I decided to research who compiled the list. That proved to be a small undertaking. The radio station didn’t publish it on their web site. I plugged the search string “most popular 10 brands in the us 2011” in Google and produced a modest yield: 
Wow, only 3 billion, 130 million results? That will be easy to cull.
Did I attempt to narrow the search? Nyet. On the fifth page of results I found this link:
Media in the URL gave me a high level of confidence. My intuition was correct. On the Media Outrage site was a link to YouGov BrandIndex, the purveyors of the study. Their index is titled “Top US Buzz Scores for 2011.” Respondents answered this question:
"If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"
The Buzz Rankings chart showed the brands with the highest average Buzz scores between January and December 2011.
So the survey is strongly geared toward recall which favors brands that are heavily supported by advertising, marketing and social media. So now I only question how the two media brands and Cheerios made the list.
My curiosity satisfied, I decided to end my research here rather than get into the science behind the study: methodology, respondent demographics, etc.
My bottom line
Buzz is usually a positive and a healthy sign for your brand. Clearly, you need to manage your message and be very visible in the marketplace. If a similar survey focused on your market were conducted, where do you suppose your company or product brand would rank?
If there’s no buzz around your brand, there’s no interest in your brand. And that will kill your bottom line.
My pitch
Make the investment and make your own buzz. If you don’t have the bandwidth, intuition or talent to promote your brand, write me.
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