CorpComms Magazine

Search engine giant Google was the most highly-rated brand by British consumers last year for the second year running, according to the latest annual YouGov BrandIndex league table.

The BrandIndex measures brands in terms of quality, value, customer satisfaction, corporate reputation, general impression and the likelihood of consumers to recommend the brand. The Index score is based on the average score achieved across all six attributes.

In 2011 there was only one new face in the top 20, Dove, and the top six was unchanged on the previous year: Amazon, Marks & Spencer, BBC, Heinz and Sony came in second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively. YouGov put Dove's success down to its successful employment of social media and its ongoing 'Real Beauty' marketing campaign, which launched in 2004, using 'real' women of all shapes and sizes in its advertisements.

According to the BrandIndex, e-commerce company Amazon is only one of three brands in the top 20 whose Index score has improved on last year. The other two are oral health product brand Colgate and cheddar cheese brand Cathedral City.

Chocolate brand Cadbury, high-street bookseller Waterstones and electronics company Bosch were the only three brands to drop places within the top 20.

Sarah Murphy, YouGov's associate director of BrandIndex, said: 'It's been a tough year for the leading brands, very few have managed to improve their perceptions in consumers' eyes. However, many outside the leaders have certainly bucked that trend, most notably British Airways, Android ...and mobile phone manufacturer HTC who achieved the highest increase in consumer ratings from 2010 to 2011.'

Also featured in the BrandIndex top 20 are high street retailer John Lewis, pharmacy chain Boots, supermarket chain Sainsbury's, high street chocolate chain Thorntons, Channel 4, chocolate brand Maltesers, crisp brand Walkers and electronic goods manufacturer Panasonic.

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