Gillian O’Sullivan discusses the findings of Ipsos’ 2017 ‘Most Influential Brands’ study.

Brands play a huge role in our lives and the lives of people all around the globe. Some brands increasingly have the power to shift paradigms of behaviours. Others have a strong sense of purpose – clear ideals and shared values that consumers relate to. These brands engender a strong emotional connection with people.

Consumers place a tremendous degree of trust in these brands. They guide us in how we shop, interact with others and behave. They often provide us with the tools to make smarter choices, which somewhat explains why a number of technology brands rank so highly – eight out of the top 10 brands in Australia in our annual ‘Most Influential Brands’ study for 2017 are technology focused companies.

The most influential brands are important and relevant in the world, but becoming an influential brand is no easy task.

Defining influence – what’s driving the top 10 most influential brands?

Influence is complex. In our research, we explored how brands have an impact on people’s lives by looking at the key drivers that define ‘influence’ and the five complementary factors that impact influence: leading edge, engagement, trustworthy, citizenship and presence.

Each of the top ten stood out for different reasons. Bunnings, at 10, leads all other brands on the dimension of ‘trustworthy’, partly by staying committed to a single minded strategy in an era of great disruption and change.

At nine, Telstra continues to lead its competitors through its strong presence. At eight, YouTube is a case study in how to create emotional engagement.

At seven Apple leads all other brands on the dimension of ‘leading edge’ for the fourth year in a row.

Coles has continued to rise up the rankings, now sitting at number five by leading all other supermarket brands in understanding consumer needs.

PayPal was introduced to The Most Influential Brands study for this first time this year and moved straight to the number 4 position to become the most trusted brand in Australia, based on this study.

The top brands – Google, Facebook and Microsoft – continue to dominate. Microsoft maintains its influence, while Facebook continues goes from strength to strength as it launches new services and lead initiatives into new technologies.

And finally, Google is the most influential brand for the fourth year in a row – in Australia, across the globe, amongst all generational groups. Google continues to lead in innovation, originality and reliability.

Gillian O’Sullivan is managing director, marketing at Ipsos Australia and New Zealand

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