Bad News Affects Corporate Reputations in the UK
January 15, 2013
Google loses ground in the UK, but at least they are in good company. The Hollywood Reporter reveals, “BBC, Google, Apple, Amazon Drop in Annual U.K. Brand Ranking.” It seems each of these behemoths suffered from “negative buzz” last year, according to YouGov‘s BrandIndex. The relevant study polled 2,000 folks each day over the course of the year, asking whether they had heard anything positive or negative about many different brands.
Google‘s slide from the previous year was significant, falling from fourth place to tenth. Writer Georg Szalai explains:
“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. . . .
“In the case of Google, its brand buzz was also negative amid a change in privacy policies that have sparked a European probe.”
Indeed, we should not be surprised that Google took such a hit in Europe. Is the company concerned with improving public opinion across the Atlantic, or is it more interested in the short-term bottom line?
Apple‘s expulsion from the top ten (from sixth place last year) seems the result of its mapping debacle, the disappointment that is the iPhone 5, and legal tangles with Samsung. The slip Amazon saw was less dramatic; it only went from first to third place. The BBC faced a couple of scandals last year, and it’s overall brand suffered. However, two satellite projects, the BBC iPlayer radio and the BBC.co.uk Web page, both remain in the top ten.
I wonder what 2013 will bring for each of these companies. Will they behave themselves?
Cynthia Murrell, January 15, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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