Amazon, Google and Netflix are the most loved brands in America, according to Morning Consult’s 2019 annual ranking of the brands that define our culture and commerce.
To determine the latest rankings, Morning Consult analyzed over 400,000 survey interviews from Morning Consult Brand Intelligence, measuring consumer sentiment across favorability, trust, community impact, and Net Promoter Score.
Amazon clocked in at a 261.9 score, followed by Google at 261.1 and Netflix at 259.4. Here are the top 10 brands as ranked by Morning Consult:
- Amazon – 261.9 net promoter score
- Google – 261.1
- Netflix – 259.4
- UPS – 255.6
- Home Depot – 248.3
- USPS – 247.9
- Hershey’s – 244.2
- FedEx – 244
- Dollar Tree – 243.7
- Cheerios – 241.2
By generation demographics, here’s how the brands stack up:
Boomers (Ages 55 to 75):
- UPS
- Home Depot
- USPS
- Lowe’s
- FedEx
Gen X (Ages 40-54):
- Amazon
- Netflix
- UPS
- Home Depot
Millennials (Ages 24-39):
- Netflix
- Amazon
- YouTube
- Target
Gen Z (Ages 4-24)
- Netflix
- YouTube
- Amazon
- Oreo
One compelling element to Morning Consult’s research – and to brand strength in general – is the trust factor. According to the firm, Americans don’t have much trust in institutions and brands. And, there’s a deep fatigue at all levels.
Two-thirds of respondents themselves recognize that Americans have become less trusting in recent years.
The people, corporations and institutions they trust the most are the United States Postal Service (43%) Amazon (38.8%) and Google (37.9%), followed by PayPal, The Weather Channel, Chick-fil-A, Hershey, UPS, Cheerios and M&Ms.
It is significant that many of the top trusted brands are older. The survey says only 2% of the most trusted 100 brands began their businesses in 2001 or later. But 23% started between 1926-1950 and 21% started between 1951-75.
That may be changing. Among Gen Z consumers, all the most trusted brands are new. Their list is topped by Google (47.1%), Netflix (47%), Amazon (46.6%), YouTube (41.9%) and PlayStation (39.2%). Google is also the most trusted among Millennials.
But overall, younger consumers seem more distrustful too. For Gen Z, the average brand trust rating was +10, compared to +21 for boomers.
Facebook doesn’t show up among the most trusted among any of the demographic groups.
Tom Hanks (34%) and Oprah Winfrey (27%), in this survey, have comparatively large trust factors.
Asked to name the companies, institutions or people that consumers trust to do the right thing “a lot,” respondents first picked their “primary doctor,” at 50%. The military comes next at 44% and then Amazon (39%) and Google (38%).
Teachers are trusted by 35% and the police by 30%. Scientific studies (26%) and health warnings or advisories (23%) come before “Donald Trump,” who earns a 20% trust level, just above “food packaging labels” (16%).
Down deeper on the list are religious leaders (15%) capitalism (14%), the news media (8%) and the U.S. government (7%).
Morning Consult does daily tracking of consumers through its proprietary platform, Brand Intelligence, that follows more than 2,000 companies.
The Most Trusted Brands rankings were determined using surveys conducted online among a national sample of adults. The surveys were conducted from mid-October through early December, with an average of 16,700 interviews per brand for nearly 2,000 brands. All other data was drawn from a survey conducted in mid-December with a nationally representative sample of 2,200 U.S. adults.
News media should do more to quash misleading messages
Fighting back against “cynicism and negativity” is likely to become an even bigger theme for the media industry this year, according to a recent report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
More than half (53 %) of the top digital media leaders surveyed for the institute’s annual Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and Predictions report believe the news media should do more to call out misleading statements and half-truths by politicians.
But they feared that fact checking, an area of journalism that has grown since 2016 – the year of the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s election – were not having “any impact on large parts of the public.”
The report found that although the next decade in journalism is likely to be “defined by increasing regulation of the internet,” most editorial leaders are skeptical about whether policy interventions will actually help them.
Asked to what extent they thought Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Snapchat and Amazon had “done enough to support journalism”, publishers rated Google as the top platform (60 %).
By comparison 33 % said Twitter had done enough to support journalism, followed by Apple (26 %), Facebook (25 %), Snapchat (12 %) and Amazon (7 %).
Titan-ic Mic: Titans were this year’s cinderella
The under-the-radar Tennessee Titans finally ran out of miracles!
The Cinderella team that nobody in the sports universe gave a chance to beat the reigning world champion New England Patriots and the No. 1 team in football this year (Baltimore Ravens) marched into Boston and Baltimore with their blue-collar confidence and smash-mouth mentality – led by King Henry and his band of hard-hitters – and laid waste to the rulers.
But their gridiron magic and bag of tricks finally met their match in frigid Kansas City.
The team that produced the Music City Miracle – and came up one yard short in the 2000 Super Bowl – came up just one W short of the biggest game in the sports universe.
In a way, these modern Titans, are magical. They sprung up from the ashes of 2-4 to finish on a 7-3 win streak at the helm of Ryan Tannehill, this year’s Comeback Player of the Year and Most Improved Player, to defy the odds and pound their way to the AFC Championship.
The Titans certainly have nothing to hang their helmets about. More than anything, this season is about regaining its swagger. Finding a lost identity. Building for the future.
This gritty and determined bunch – crystalized in the record-setting pounding by its star running back – upended a modern-day NFL dynasty and doled out payback for past playoff losses, and in the end, crowned one of their own king (music to this Titan fan’s ears). When it all settled, these modern warriors slayed the demons of past mediocrity and built a strong foundation for future triumphs.
The bitter loss to a much better Mahomes-led Chiefs team should galvanize the Titans for future triumphs. A new generation has been forged on the mighty shoulders of past giants. And while there were no miracles this time, there was a certain confident magic that prevailed – that gives rise to a brilliant future. Titan up, y’all!
Each week, The Spin Cycle will bestow a Golden Mic Award to the person, group or company in the court of public opinion that best exemplifies the tenets of solid PR, marketing and advertising – and those who don’t. Stay tuned – and step-up to the mic! And remember … Amplify Your Brand!