BrandIndex gives Microsoft, Bing and Windows thumbs up...as BBC, Google, Apple, brands drop in U.K. ranking

The BBC, Google, Apple and Amazon.com are among big media and Internet brands whose reputation in Britain was dragged down by negative buzz this year, according to annual brand ranking data from YouGov's BrandIndex. But the BBC iPlayer, the public broadcaster's digital TV catch-up service, topped the U.K. list of brands with the biggest positive buzz in 2012, according to the Guardian. It hit a score of 30, a figure reached when calculating the percentage balance of people saying that they have heard good things versus people reporting having heard bad things.

The BBC suffered from the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal this fall and a report by its flagship TV news magazine that wrongly implicated a former politician in another abuse case. "While the BBC umbrella brand is definitely being hit and is at the lowest levels ever seen, there has been no knock-on effect for products like the iPlayer and its .co.uk web site," which ranks 8th on the list, said BrandIndex director Sarah Murphy.

Google, which ranked fourth last year with a score of 26.7, dropped out of the top 10 as its score fell by 15 points, while Amazon fell from the top spot in 2011 to the third rank this year, according to the list.

Apple's reputation also took a hit amid criticism of its new mapping software, mixed reviews for the iPhone 5 and legal battles with rival Samsung, which took the 9th rank on the list. Apple dropped out of the top 10 after reaching the sixth spot last year, with its score falling from 24.6 to 15 points. But its iPad came in sixth thanks to positive buzz for tablets.

The Guardian said the YouGov researchers cited public anger in the U.K. amid a recent debate over measures by the likes of Google, Amazon and Starbucks to avoid taxes as a key factor hurting the scores of those companies. Murphy said: "Amazon had a score of 32.1 last year, so a fall of eight points [to 24.1] is a statistically significant drop for them." In the case of Google, its brand buzz was also negative amid a change in privacy policies that have sparked a European probe. The research firm asked 2,000 people every day if they had heard anything positive or negative about a slew of brands.

According to brand perception rating agency, BrandIndex, Microsoft is experiencing one of its biggest US consumer perception surges in two years, likely riding the wave of multiple initiatives including Bing’s current advertising campaign, the recent launch of Windows 8, and its new Surface tablet.

For Microsoft, their product stars seem to have aligned at roughly the same time:

• Search engine Bing reached a two-year high in consumer perception.
• The Windows brand is at its highest perception point since the introduction of Windows 7 in October      2009.
• Microsoft is getting its best perception marks of the year from tablet owners.

Microsoft, Bing, and Windows were measured with YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which asks respondents: "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?" Results were divided into two groups: all adults age 18+, and all adults age 18+ who own tablets.

Since mid-October 2012, Microsoft perception has risen from 17 to 25. Among tablet owners, the brand enjoys even better perception levels, moving from 23 to 33 over the same period. Bing has also enjoyed steady improvement with consumers overall, moving from 10 to 16 within the same period. This represents its highest Buzz score in over two years and coincides with Bing's current advertising campaign.

Since Windows 8 promotions kicked in at mid-October last year, the Windows brand has seen its buzz score rise from 14 to 23. That is the brand’s highest buzz score since the launch of Windows 7. And with tablet users, the Windows brand rose to a 30 score the first week of November same year. It's expected that this trend will reflect on Microsoft Q1 results of 2013.

BrandIndex is the authoritative measure of brand perception. Unlike any other brand intelligence services, BrandIndex continuously measures public perception of thousands of brands across dozens of sectors.