‘Meaningful Brands’ study ranks social media giants as ‘weak’ – tech brands must invest in public assurance to avoid ‘irreversible backlash’

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New survey results from Havas Media’s Meaningful Brands has exposed perception risk that many media tech brands such as Facebook and Google face if they are not seen to be making a positive impact on society.

This news comes despite the huge success these brands have enjoyed within both the overall Meaningful Brands scores and other wider opinion research.

The Meaningful Brands index (MBi) is Havas Media’s metric for measuring brand strength. It is the first global analytical framework to connect human well-being with brands at a business level. It measures the impact of the brand’s benefits alongside its impact on 12 different areas of well-being (such as health, happiness, financial, relationships and community among others) for a full view of its effect on our quality of life.

This year tech megabrands achieved top scores on the MBi as they generate a positive impact on our day to day organisational, intellectual, social and emotional well-being.  To support this, half of the top ten global brands are from the tech sector – Google occupies the No. 1 slot, closely followed by Samsung, Microsoft and Sony.  In the UK Google is ranked No. 3 – Yahoo and Skype also perform well.

Looking further into the data it shows that, despite the positive performance, this dominance will be short-lived if the tech brands don’t improve their impact on our collective well-being (i.e. community, environment and wider society). Furthermore, at a global level, the Media Tech category has the lowest scores when measuring its positive impact on our communities, economies, environments, as well as governance & ethics.

 

For example, Google came 61st on economic well-being (out of just over 70 brands) in the UK and 47th on governance and ethics, clearly indicating the controversy over its payment of tax has impacted the brand.

 

Says Kate Cox, head of strategy, Havas Media: “Many Media Tech brands enjoy high rankings in our Meaningful Brands index this year – in fact some of their specific scores and activities that relate to increases in our personal quality of life are outstanding. Many of these high scoring brands focus very specifically on us as individuals, which is important in developed markets such as the UK.  Media Tech brands, such as Google and Skype, over-deliver and communicate this promise. Google in particular has a strong social and collective conscience investing in charity and society initiatives beyond the need for short-term profit. However, it does not communicate this widely leaving it open to public scrutiny around its tax status. Indeed it scores very badly on ‘Benefits the economy’ in the UK, but people are so in love with the information it provides them, that this concern does not pull down its score.”

 

Commenting on the ongoing data privacy debate Cox says: “With these strong results from the personal areas in our index, we see that brands such as Google are in a good position to withstand media scrutiny on issues such as data security. The big issue will come when we start to connect the dots and understand what the data debate really means to them. At this moment PRISM feels a million miles away from most people. We argue that this is the window for these Tech brands to fix these issues before the fall out really starts to impact our individual well-being. At that point the damage to the brand will be irreversible.”

 

Says Umair Haque, Havas Media group director: “Media Tech brands are – at the moment – able to ride out current issues on data and ethics as we all continue our love affair with social connectivity. But as we start to connect the dots on what this debate can mean to us on a day to day basis, they will start to face numerous challenges in continuing to grow their meaningfulness.

 

“From resolving tax issues, to improving working conditions, to reducing ecological impacts, to investing in platforms that tangibly, actively, visibly improve people’s lives. Resolving all of these challenges requires a deeper understanding of what kinds of well-being matter most to people and then continuing to create radically innovative ways to keep delivering them. That’s what it takes to build a truly meaningful brand”. The Meaningful Brands survey summary included in its findings that globally it is perceived that only 20% of brands make a positive impact to our quality of life and well being. Full details of the 2013 Meaningful Brands research can be found in the link supplied.