Google Takes 'Top Global Brand' Title from Apple [Study]

Buzz over new and improved products has helped Google surpass Apple in Impact Media Value, making it the Top Global Brand according to General Sentiment’s Global Brands Report for Q2 2012.

Impact Media Value attempts to assign a dollar value to the amount of buzz over a company in online news and social media, regardless of sentiment. Google scored $756.6 million in brand value, compared to former leader Apple’s $594.3 million. Microsoft took the bronze with $356.4 million in brand value.

Other companies in the top 10 were Amazon.com, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Sony, Disney, FedEx, and Yahoo.

Global Sentiment explains Google’s success in Q2 2012:

At the end of June, Google I/O 2012prompted a ton of media coverage. During I/O’s three days, the company unveiled Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus Q (an orb-shaped media streaming device) and introduced improvements to existing products. Google also used skydivers to introduce the $1,500 Google Glass prototype.

Bad news for Apple in Q2 contributed to their slip from the leading position, including their implication in a lawsuit alleging e-book price fixing and investment bank Piper Jaffray’s lackluster grade for Siri.

A second competition based on Perception Media Value isolates the effects of sentiment on brand value by disregarding neutral mentions, assigning positive value to positive mentions, and taking away value for negative mentions. In that category, AXA, Ball Corporation, and FedEx took the top three spots, respectively; Google, Amazon and Microsoft didn’t make the top 10.

As to methodology, the report notes, “Global Sentiment used the top 100 global brands from the 2011 Interbrand report and selected brands from the S&P 500 as a prescreening step in its Media Value computation.” That Interbrand report (in November 2011) found Google the Most Attractive Employer and saw the search giant in the Best Global Brands Top 5 for the second year in a row.

Download the full report for further insights and the full lists for brand impact, biggest winners, and biggest losers.

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