The Asian Age

Apple, Google’s brand reputation stumbles, says report

■ Lack of not many attention- grabbing offerings from the giants cited as prime reasons

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New York, March 13: Apple and Alphabet’s Google corporate brands dropped in an annual survey while Amazon. com maintained the top spot for the third consecutiv­e year, and electric carmaker Telsa Inc rocketed higher after sending a red Roadster into space.

iPhone maker Apple dropped to 29th from its previous position of No. 5, and Google dropped from 8th to 28th. Apple had ranked No. 2 as recently as 2016, according to the annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient poll released on Tuesday.

The poll, conducted since 1999, surveyed 25,800 US adults from December 11 to January 12 on the reputation­s the“most visible” corporate brands.

John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, told Reuters in an interview that the likely reason Apple and Google fell was that they have not introduced as many attentiong­rabbing products as they did in past years, such as when Google rolled out free offerings like its Google Docs word processor or Google Maps and Apple introduced the iPod, iPhone and iPad. “Google and Apple, at this moment, are sort of in valleys,” Mr Gerzema said. “We’re not quite to self- driving cars yet. We’re not yet seeing all the things in AI they’re going to do.”

Meanwhile, Amazon. com held on to the No. 1 spot, which it has held for five years with the exception of 2015, when it slipped to second spot.

Mr Gerzema attributed Amazon’s ranking to its expanding footprint in consumers’ lives into areas like groceries via its Whole Foods acquisitio­n.

Elon Musk’s Tesla climbed from No. 9 to No. 3 on the strength of sending Tesla Roadster into space aboard a SpaceX rocket — despite fleeting success delivering cars on time on earth, Mr Gerzema said.

“He’s a modern- day carnival barker — it’s incredible,” Mr Gerzema said of Mr Musk. “This ‘ The Right Stuff ’ attitude is able to capture the public’s imaginatio­n when every news headline is incredibly negative. They’re filling a void of optimism.”

For its part, Facebook’s reputation improved in the 2018 study, despite being the target of questions from US lawmakers about the role of social media in Russia’s efforts to influence the US presidenti­al election in 2016.

Facebook ranked 51st, its best showing since 2014 when it ranked 38th, the highest the firm ever ranked in the poll.

This year, The Weinstein Co made its debut at 99th out of 100 on the list after more than 70 women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

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