Microsoft Brand In Sharp Decline

Amy Bennett writes "A recent poll of about 12,000 US business decision-makers by market researcher CoreBrand found that Microsoft's brand power has taken a dive over the past four years. According to the study, Microsoft dropped from number 12 in the ranking of the most powerful US company brands in 2004 to number 59 last year. In 1996, the company ranked number 1 in brand power among 1,200 top companies in about 50 industries. The CEO of CoreBrand said: 'When you see something decline with increasing velocity, it's a concern.' To add some historical context, IBM suffered a much faster and more severe decline in brand power in the early 1990s and it took them 10 years to rebuild the brand's reputation."

Comments

Re:What the heck is this a measure of?

[jmorris42]

> Ah well. Given Vista, Windows security issues, and Apple's consistent attempts to sell their computers to the high-school and college-age markets...

No. Just no. Get a freaking clue dude. Apple is still, even after a decade of resurgence, a single digit niche player for the latte sipping set and graphic artists. Most people aren't even nerds/geeks and rarely think much about their PC. But once upon a time the legend of Bill Gatus of Borg/Microsoft was engrained into everyone from little old ladies who couldn't find the power switch on a PC to schoolchildren as a "Great American Success Story." Now things are more realistic, i.e. Microsoft is seen as just another big company. To think Apple had ANYTHING to do with that is just silly, considering their tiny slice of the marketplace.

WHAT!? Oh... it is a business study... was it?

[FireXtol]

Businesses are clamoring for 'Support XP indefinately!' So why would this be an issue? They are happy with their workstations.
As for them being rated for Computer Software? They're number 1!

Also, Apple failed to make the list -at all! Same with ever other name-brand PC manufacturer I could think of while searching.

Plus this is solely for businesses. A similar survey with solely consumers would see Microsoft in a much higher position, I'd think.
Company which was number 1? Coca-Cola. Apparently after your daily dose of caffiene and high fructose corn syrup... you move onto Johnson & Johnson's baby wipes (for the nanny), then eat some Hershey's milk chocolate with riding aimlessly on your brand-new Harley Davidson!

Even Visa is 36! And it's everywhere I want to be.