These Are the Top 10 Most Recommended Brands

New York—Word-of-mouth recommendations are a guiding force among consumers and brands often rely heavily on them.

Recently, YouGov’s BrandIndex, which continuously measures public perception of thousands of brands across a variety of sectors, aimed to figure out which brands are, in fact, the most recommended.

YouGov screened 1,630 brands for their “net recommend score,” asking respondents the following two questions: “Would you recommend the brand to a friend or colleague?” and “Would you tell a friend or colleague to avoid the brand?”

Only respondents who are current or former customers of a given brand were interviewed.

YouGov collected the rankings data between Nov. 1, 2017 and Oct. 31 of this year.

At No. 1 in the 2018 Advocacy Rankings in the U.S. with a score of 74.2 is Band-Aid, a brand that is so well-recognized that many people use the name to refer to all adhesive bandages.

Falling just behind is Netflix at No. 2, insurance company United Services Automobile Association (USAA) at No. 3, John Deere at No. 4, and Wegman’s at No. 5.

Another digital company appeared on the list at No. 6—Amazon.com—followed by footwear company Merrell at No. 7 and Harley-Davidson at No. 8.

Febreze, at No. 9, and Dubai-based airline Emirates, at No. 10, rounded out the top 10.

YouGov BrandIndex also ranked the most improved brands, gathering data between Nov. 1, 2016 and Oct. 31, 2018.

Topping the most-improved list is investment bank and financial services company UBS, with a 10.1- point jump in score.

Close behind is nasal spray Nasonex, improving 8.8 points, and FreeCreditScore.com, up by 8.4 points.

At No. 4 is Fred’s pharmacy chain (+8.2), No. 5 is Vive virtual reality system (+7.7), No. 6 is L’oréal’s True Match makeup (+7.6) and at No. 7 is another L’oréal product, Voluminous (+7.6).

Rounding out the top 10 most improved are: Ring (a video doorbell) at No. 8, with a 7.5-point increase in its score; Samsung at No. 9 (+7.1); and Texas-based retail chain Conn’s at No. 10 (+6.9).

To access the rankings across markets, visit BrandIndex.com.