Google On Top Again
The search engine giant takes the top spot for the best brand in India as well as globally alongside Whatsapp and Youtube
Tech major Google has gained the top spot in Yougov’s 2020 best brand rankings in India yet again and has become the healthiest brand among urban Indians. Youtube and Whatsapp, the two other equally popular brands, have swapped their positions this year and follow in second spot with a score of 53.3 and third with 53.1 respectively.
In spite of topping the rankings, it was a tough year for tech brands, with each of these brands recording a decline in brand health scores year-on-year. Social media major Facebook also recorded a marginal decline to its score, although it has moved up two places to sixth with a score of 38.3 in this year’s rankings.
besides tech brands, the top 10 list this year is dominated by e-commerce brands, highlighting the rising engagement of Indian consumers with e-commerce platforms during the ongoing health crisis. Amazon and Swiggy have made notable improvements to their brand perception amidst the pandemic. However, there has been no change in their rankings, and they remain in fourth (52.8) and fifth (46.1), respectively, this year as well. Zomato has moved up three places in the list, from 10th in 2019 to seventh (37.5) in the 2020 rankings. makemytrip on the other hand has moved down two places- to eighth (37.1), and Flipkart has made a new entry into the list at the ninth spot (35.3).
“Yougov’s 2020 best brand rankings place Google in the first place yet again. In addition to being the best brand in India, the tech giant dominates the global rankings as well, highlighting the power of a strong brand. India’s top 10 list this year has a dominance of e-commerce brands, showing the rising engagement of urban Indian residents with online shopping amidst the pandemic,” said deepa bhatia, General manager, Yougov India.
The rankings were based on the Index score from internet-based market research and data analytics firm Yougov’s brandindex, which is a measure of overall brand health calculated by taking the average of Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, recommend and reputation. The rankings also show the brands which have improved the most over the past 12 months. brands like Tata motors (3.3) and Samsung Smartphones (+2.4) are the names that complete the list of top 10 improvers of 2020.
Yougov also released this year’s annual global best brands rankings with Google taking the top spot again over here. Tech brands dominate the top of the list with the search and advertising giant followed by Whatsapp, Youtube, Samsung and Amazon. Netflix and Facebook came in at sixth and seventh places respectively. digital brands dominate the global ranking and with good reason. by their very nature the likes of Google, Youtube, and Whatsapp are available in most places on earth to anyone with internet access.
Yougov brandindex carries out 8 million interviews across the world every year who answer questions about a company’s quality, value and their level of satisfaction with the brand, among other measures. For this year’s global list, Yougov used data from 33 markets.n
The COVID-19 pandemic and increased duration spent at home has led to heightened consumer awareness and appreciation of the intangible factors contributing to a great smartphone experience, including the mobile OS. In fact, as per a new study titled ‘The State of Smartphone OS experience’ by cybermedia research, 55% of the smartphone users surveyed believe that smartphone OS is absolutely key for the overall consumer experience and delight. The degree of consumer satisfaction is the highest with Oxygenos from Oneplus (74%) followed by Apple IOS (72%), the study finds.
As per the study insights, three in every five users are willing to shift to a different smartphone brand, driven by the OS considerations. This trend is significantly key for consumers who have faced some level of challenges with their existing mobile OS on their smartphone. These include issues such as unwanted ads in the OS, unwanted preinstalled apps, apps running in background, and other issues, such as lack of storage, overheating, and battery drainage issues, among others.
“When it comes to a great smartphone user experience, it is not just what’s on the outside – the mobile hardware, but what’s really on the inside – the mobile OS and the mobile app experience, that matters to consumers. consumers prefer the intelligent and nifty tweaks to the OS that enable seamless lag-free experiences, including optimizations aimed at digital wellbeing, and optimizations to conserve battery and refine overall user experiences, including while gaming,” said Prabhu ram, Headindustry Intelligence Group (IIG), cmr.
When it comes to smartphone brand loyalty amongst current users and future intenders, Oneplus (39%) scores the maximum trumping premium brands such as Apple (35%) and Samsung (27%).
“Today’s consumers put a premium on their mobile OS, and are seeking smooth, uninterrupted ad-free experiences. Oneplus enjoys a high degree of enduring brand loyalty and affinity amongst current and future users. Further, the Oxygenos on Oneplus imparts a smooth experience such as reading mode, gaming mode and facilitates digital wellbeing through its Zen mode,” said Amit Sharma, Analyst, Industry
Intelligence Group (IIG), cmr.
• Indians update their smartphone OS mostly to boost performance and to ensure security. They run variety of applications on their OS among which social networking, shopping, entertainment and gaming are major ones.
• Smooth experience, security and ease of usage are top three satisfaction drivers; battery drainage, hangs and lack of storage space are top three reasons for dissatisfaction with the smartphone OS.
• Major barriers for updating OS have been poor Wi-fi connection network, lack of storage space, and abnormal battery drainage issues.
• As the preferred OS, Oxygenos from Oneplus scores amongst users for the lag-free, smooth user experience, and work life balance through its Zen mode. consumers love the OS optimizations aimed at digital wellbeing, and at enabling great gaming experiences.
The study is based on an extensive survey conducted by cmr, across six cities of India, namely New delhi, mumbai, Kolkata, bengaluru, chennai and Hyderabad. The study covered 1,226 smartphone users in the age groups of 18 to 40, with the sample base proportioned to represent the overall population.n