Forrester Research has published a new report that examines the trust that American households place in PC and consumer electronics (CE) brands, including the brands of Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony (the red dots, above). The results may be surprising to gamers.
In Forrester's analysis, Sony's brand garnered the highest marks of the three companies (Sony also ranked 3rd out of 22 companies), earning an average of A plus. Of the companies surveyed, only Bose and Dell sport an A plus. Meanwhile, Microsoft's brand earned an overall grade of C (placing Microsoft at 20 out of 22), dragged down by low brand trust. Nintendo's brand earned a B, but was pulled towards the bottom of the ranking (17th place out of 22) by low brand potential and low brand adoption.
The chart above, courtesy Forrester, dramatizes the difference between the three brands. Sony and Nintendo are clustered together in the middle of the pack, with Sony enjoying higher trust and higher potential. The low marks that Forrester gives Microsoft in the area of trust and potential, however, means that the company will fight an uphill battle in trying to win consumers over to its CE and PC products.
A few revealing quotes from the study:
"Microsoft faces big consumer defection risk. One measure of consumers' dissatisfaction with Microsoft is seen in the 5.4 million households that give it a brand trust score of 1 [distrust a lot] or 2 [distrust a bit]. Compared with all Microsoft users, these at-risk users have higher income, are much more likely to be male, and are bigger online spenders.(see endnote 7) These households know they run Microsoft software but would be just as happy to leave it behind — if they could."
"Sony's current customers are affluent, young, and more likely than the general population to stick with a brand they like. Sony's prospects have a different profile: poorer than the general population, less brand loyal, and more likely to buy on price. To reach these 9.8 million households, Sony will have to tailor its marketing messages and retail presence to compete on price."
Remember, though, that this survey is based on broad attitudes towards these companies' entire product lines. The applicability of these results to the gaming market is an open question. Intuitively, however, the attitudes expressed in the survey feel close to the attitudes we see on this blog from commenters.
Microsoft tends to be afforded very little leeway or margin for error. The company hasn't got a ton of trust, at least amongst Internet communities that have for years now vilified the company for real or perceived exploitation of dominant marketshare in the PC software market. Additionally, Microsoft is also the newest of the big three console makers, so it's had less time than the other two to build trust within the gaming segment. We're all still trying to figure out the company's sophomore effort.
That said, perhaps the real insight to be gained from this study is Apple's standing on the brand trust scale. If Apple were to introduce a gaming handheld targeted at the mainstream and designed as well as the iPod, this study indicates that the company would be a strong competitor versus Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
And I can't believe RCA Beats anyone. RCA is junk to me.
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