What are the most relevant brands to American consumers?
When a brand loses relevance, it generally loses sales and in many cases slowly goes out of business.
Research company Prophet surveyed nearly 15,000 customers about more than 300 brands across 27 industries to develop its second annual consumer-based Brand Relevance Index (BRI) [opens in PDF]. The researchers defined relevance in a very simple way: "Brands consumers can't live without equals relevance."
The research firm picked the 300 companies it surveyed consumers on by looking at companies from all industries that contribute materially to United States household spending. Tobacco and firearms companies were excluded. "Within each industry, the companies that were included achieved outsize business performance ... within their respective industries. In some instances, smaller companies that have been driving change in these industries were also included given their significant traction with consumers," wrote the company.
Take a look at the most relevant brands in the slideshow below:
"We believe that the strongest brands are the ones that are relentlessly relevant and are making a difference in consumers' lives," the company wrote.
The top 10 is full of well-known brands, but a few of the names that make the top of the list may be a bit surprising. You may also be surprised that iconic companies including Walt Disney (13), YouTube (20), and Hershey (42) don't make the top 10. These are the companies that did:
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