This year’s Brand Keys’ survey of consumer perceptions of innovative tech brands found consumers’ identification with brands and innovation has broadened. This year they added seven brands to the list of innovation leaders for the first time since the survey has been conducted.
While it may be hard to believe, but there was a time when consumers actually feared of technological innovation. Consumers equated innovation and technology with a greater likelihood of breakdown or just something else to go wrong, but clearly not anymore. The 21st century may not have delivered flying cars, but it is clearly meeting its potential in terms of providing products and services that better meet consumers’ expectations when it comes to technology.
This year 4,400 consumers were asked to name companies and brands that were highest on their lists of technological innovators, with the following top-20 results:
- Apple
- Samsung
- Amazon
- HBO
- Netflix
- SoundCloud
- YouTube
- Microsoft
- IBM
- Uber
- Kickstarter
- Square
- Slack
- Tesla
- Hulu
- Intel
- Line
The consumer’s expectation for constant innovation, and the expansion of technological innovation, is crossing over B2C and B2B lines more and more. This accounts for the addition of the seven new brands on this year’s list. Each new brand stands for something that advances the category in which they compete, with a lot of consumer-to-business crossover. Those seven brands include:
HBO: Their expansion of HBO GO and willingness to cross platforms to deliver ever more entertainment.
Kickstarter: A place where global creativity and innovation has a chance to be cultivated and launched.
Line: A mobile messaging app with a personality that appeals to consumers’ emotional side of communication.
SoundCloud: Which has become the world’s largest audio platform.
Square: Giving companies the ability to take care of business anywhere.
Slack: The collaborative messaging platform for aggregating all business needs.
Tesla: The electric brand that is making an all-electric car a reality.
Last year’s list included more traditional’ brands and, of course, the usual suspects – Apple, Samsung, Google, and Amazon – ranking high, but clearly consumers have expanded their horizons when it come to looking for new technologies and innovation.
It’s clear that consumer attitudes toward innovation have changed dramatically over the past 15 years. Consumers have come to see innovation and change as an opportunity – not a threat. And, just like Steve Jobs foretold, innovation truly does distinguish between a leader and a follower.
Find out more about what makes customer loyalty happen and how Brand Keys metrics is able to predict future consumer behavior: brandkeys.com. Visit our YouTube channel to learn more about Brand Keys methodology, applications and case studies.
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