We get no end of press releases, studies and reports here in the Gestalt IT offices. A recent one came across my inbox and sparked my interest. It was a study by GraphicSprings on the most recognizable logos from the world’s most profitable companies. The study looked not just if people could identify companies based on their logos, but also if they could describe what the companies did. Most interestingly, this was broken down by age and region. I pulled out some of the top listed companies with a hand in IT for a comparison.
| US | EU | Asia | All | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Y | X/Y | X | B | Avg | Y | X/Y | X | B | Avg | Y | X/Y | X | B | Avg | ||
| Rank | Company | ||||||||||||||||
| #17 | Microsoft | 75 | 90 | 95 | 95 | 88.8 | 85 | 100 | 90 | 95 | 92.5 | 90 | 90 | 80 | 90 | 87.5 | 89.6 |
| #27 | Intel | 70 | 85 | 80 | 70 | 76.3 | 60 | 60 | 65 | 50 | 58.8 | 45 | 50 | 50 | 55 | 50 | 61.7 |
| #29 | IBM | 60 | 80 | 100 | 100 | 85 | 25 | 40 | 90 | 70 | 56.3 | 30 | 40 | 40 | 45 | 38.8 | 60 |
| #30 | Lenovo | 55 | 60 | 20 | 15 | 37.5 | 60 | 65 | 50 | 30 | 51.3 | 95 | 90 | 90 | 85 | 90 | 59.6 |
| #31 | Hitachi | 35 | 70 | 80 | 45 | 57.5 | 30 | 35 | 75 | 45 | 46.3 | 80 | 80 | 65 | 70 | 73.8 | 59.2 |
| #45 | Cisco | 35 | 55 | 55 | 50 | 48.8 | 10 | 55 | 45 | 10 | 30 | 25 | 55 | 40 | 30 | 37.5 | 38.8 |
| #73 | Dell technologies | 45 | 60 | 75 | 80 | 65 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| #114 | Alphabet | 30 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 13.8 | 10 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1.3 | 8.3 |
| #133 | HPE | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 8.8 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 3.8 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 3.8 | 5.4 |
Y: Millennials
X/Y: Xennials
X: Gen X
B: Baby Boomers
Seeing Microsoft as the most recognizable is not that surprising. While not quite the dominant OS that it was, Windows is still pervasive, and Office is still used all over the place. But I was surprised to see that US Millennials recognized the company the least among all demographics. Given Microsoft’s emphasis on cloud and services going forward, I’m sure they’re hoping to win back some mindshare in that demo by having apps and integrations on mobile devices, rather than counting on their traditional desktop OS dominance.
The other big surprise to me was the complete lack of awareness of Alphabet’s branding. It’s been several years since Google was subsumed into the corporate bosom of the Alphabet conglomerate, but clearly this brand doesn’t have any resonance on its own.
For the most part, it’s not surprising to see companies with consumer presences be the most recognizable. The only outlier is that is IBM. I’m willing to bet that most people really don’t know what IBM does compared to a much less recognizable company like HPE. But obviously their rich corporate legacy, combined with ambiguous marketing, is embedded in public consciousness.
You can find the complete results of the survey here.
