Microsoft takes the top spot in a brand survey by Forrester Research

While several marketing gurus hail Apple as an iconic brand across domains, Microsoft came out on top in a brand survey conducted by Forrester Research. Microsoft emerged as the winner, with Apple in second, Sony in third, and Samsung in fourth place.

The results are based on a brand survey where more than 4,500 U.S. adults were polled in August 2013. Forrester applied its TRUE methodology - which it uses to measure brand strength in several vertical markets - to 10 consumer technology firms it selected, including Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell.

Forrester argues that the One Microsoft unified branding strategy of Microsoft has resonated with American consumers and the result is because of Microsoft's ubiquity in consumers' lives and its cross-generational appeal.

"It's too early to say if 'One Microsoft' is a success, but [Microsoft] is headed in the right direction. They haven't had a consistent experience across the brand before. Microsoft's performance coincides with a shift from an individual product marketing approach to the seamless 'One Microsoft' communications and user experience.”- Tracy Stokes, Forrester Research

Microsoft’s showing majorly depended on its unbeatable score in the ‘Essentials’ category, one of four used in Forrester's calculations, and its high trust ranking across all age groups.

For most consumers, Microsoft is ubiquitous with no alternative to Windows and Office, and hence a utilitarian essentiality. Apple, with its emotional hold, and Samsung scored just as highly as did Microsoft in three of the four categories, but fell behind in Essentials. Microsoft also won out in the demographic battle with consistently high brand rankings across every age group. Meanwhile, companies like Apple and Samsung scored best in younger age groups, notably with millennial, those aged 25 to 33.

While the drive toward a singular, coherent brand helped Microsoft, Apple’s second-place finish can be attributed in part to its struggles over the last 18 months, including a drop in stock price and criticism that it had dulled its innovation edge.

Source: Computerworld

Abhishek Baxi
17 Comments
  • If windows phone is going to be like Xbox, strategy wise, then I can't wait until they put the full force of the software behind it like they did with the 360 from start to finish it was a different beast :P
  • So does this survey measure likeability or just that people recognize it?
  • Resonatability...!
  • Not a bad outcome since a lot of people still seem to think it's 2001 and that Microsoft is "The Man" against whom they must rebel.
  • While I do believe Microsoft has made great strides in getting more mindshare from the consumer sector, I'm a little sceptical about them being no 1.
  • Ditto.
  • I have to say, Microsoft needs to stop with this "One" branding until they can get something CLOSE to a consistent experience across platforms. Their tablets come in two versoins (x86 or ARM0, which run different versions of Windows. Their ARM devices (RT and WP) have different app stores. Xbox lives in its own little world. Microsoft's "One" campaign, as it stands now, is basically false advertising. They talk about consistency, but rectangular tiles is about the only thing you can REALLY expect across all platforms. RT and WP devices can't run x86 applications. 8 and RT can't run WP applications. There just isn't a good level of consistency, and all reports make it sound like we could be more than 2 years away from getting something close to a consistent experience across all devices.   They're being like Apple, in that they're using marketing tricks to get good PR, when the experience isn't close to what they claim right now.
  • Well, you have to start sometime, right? And it's impossible to start on top, you have to make your way there. Besides, "One Microsoft" is not a campaign, it's an inside project, which can be perceived outside the company by the single design language and the news leaked across tech sites. So, no. They're not being like Apple.
  • I agree, i got one wp8 device, one win8 PC and a Xbox 360.. I can't do anything with that.. There is no magical bond or consistency between my devices. If I had , iPhone , mac and apple tv thou..
    They got stuff going on.
    I thought this "play to" stuff would be awesome but it worked amazingly bad for me every time .. Beyond that I never saw a feature somewhere that "connects" the devices so it feels like one ecosystem...a part from square icons that is
  • There isn't anything better with the strategy Apple has with iOS/OS X/Apple TV. If anything Microsoft has the 1up in terms of a seamless experience because of SmartGlass and being able to control your Xbox with your phone or PC. The apps may not be cross-platform but most of apps come within a reasonable time between each other. OS X can't run iOS apps and vice versa. Apple TV is also in its own world. And RT not being the same as x86 is a compromise Microsoft had to make because technology wasn't advanced enough (at the time) to have great battery life and performance in a small package like the iPad, which is essentially their main competitor with Windows 8. So in my opinion Microsoft gets an A for effort because they've been busting their arses trying to play catch up, and I think it's worth noting.
  • Well they have this airplay feature you can share your entire screen from an iPhone / iPad / mac to the apple tv.. That feature alone makes me consider it. Also smartglass is pretty confusing app.. The only thing I think it was good for was browsing my 360 internet using phone as a remote (keyboard) . It disconnected as soon as my screen went to sleep making it connect like 30 seconds when I turn on the phone to pause a video.. Making it pretty useless
  • I don't know. The only people I know who likes MS, besides myself, are you people.
  • Who are you calling "you people"? lol
  • Us people? Haha
  • +925 love that scene
  • Would you look at that, spending money on marketing actually works. Glad Microsoft caught on. Microsoft needs to market itself like Coke does, relentlessly.
  • The article states why MSFT won, it was its high "essentials" score ... you know, the Desktop ... the part that MSFT threw under the bus with the Metro UI and WinRT. They're crawling back to it now and will be running soon.