Apple is again the top brand for customer loyalty in the US, cementing its dominance after taking over from Amazon’s 5-year reign last year. So reveals Brand Keys in its latest annual brand loyalty report [pdf], which ranked customer engagement and loyalty to 1,650 brands across 145 categories.
Apple took the top spot once more for its Smartphone brand, with Amazon in second again for Online Retail. Apple is also the most valuable brand in the world, according to recent research, with Amazon dropping to 4th this year.
Rounding out the top five in brand loyalty this year are:
- Domino’s, unchanged at #3, for Pizza;
- Netflix, up 4 spots to #4, for Video Streaming; and
- TikTok, unchanged #5, for Social Networking.
These brands were among the most likely to meet customer expectations for the respective categories.
Once again this year, Amazon appears on the top-10 list twice: for its performance in the Online Retail (#2 overall) and Video Streaming (#9 overall) categories, improving one spot for the latter.
Apple also appears on the top-10 list twice: aside from its top performance for Smartphones, it snags the #10 spot for Apple TV (Video Streaming). Apple TV’s ranking continues to improve, from #26 in 2021 to #14 last year and now #10 this year.
Brands are able to appear in Brand Keys’ loyalty leaders list more than once as they are measured against the loyalty “ideal” for each category in which they are present. This generates a percentage for each brand in each category, and the loyalty leader rankings are then formed by comparing the top percentages across all brands and categories.
Two social networking brands made it into the top-20 this year. The aforementioned TikTok at #5, and YouTube, at #11 (up 10 spots from #21 last year). Facebook – which is lacking in engagement among US adults, at least in comparison to TikTok – continues its decline,down from #29 in 2021 to #46 last year and #58 this year. At least it fared better than Instagram, which remarkably fell out of the top 100 (#102) after placing 15th last year.
Meanwhile, withvideo streaming services continuing to be popular, four video streaming services occupy places within the top-15 this year. Aside from the aforementioned Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV, Disney+ also lands in the top 15, though it fell considerably from #4 last year to #13 this year. Hulu remains just outside the top 20, up a couple of spots to #21.
Fastest Risers, Biggest Falls, and Other Notable Names
Some of the brands that saw big gains in loyalty this year include Tito’s (+53 positions to #34), Mattel (+46 to #42; we think we know why…), and T.J. Maxx (+32 to #54).
As for those that saw the greatest loss in customer loyalty ranking, X (formerly Twitter) had the dubious distinction (-45 to #92) of plummeting the most (as Americans hold dim views of the platform), followed by Spotify (-21 to #83).
A notable name that was new to the list this year? ChatGPT, which made its arrival to the top 100 in the top half of the list, at #49. Other brands new to the top 100 this year included Delta (#60) and Colgate (#64), among others.
The full top-100 list is availablehere[pdf].
About the Data:Brand Keys’ Loyalty Leaders analysis was conducted in August 2023 and includes 74,121 assessments from consumers ages 16-65 who self-selected the categories in which they are consumers and the brands for which they are customers. The 2023 Loyalty Leader assessments examined 145 categories and 1,650 brands.
