Brands suffer from negative PR on Google
- Added:
- Jun 30, 2005
The survey, from Market Sentinel, looked at the Google search results for the top 50 UK grocery brands, and found that 20 had some form of negative comment within the top 10 results.
For some brands, the negative comment, in the form of insults, misinformation, or systematic campaigns against them, is the number one result.
The brands with critical commentary in Google’s UK top ten search results include Coca-Cola, Walker’s crisps, Lucozade, McCain oven chips, and Mars Bars. For Kingsmill Bread and Bird’s Eye fish fingers the negative results were ranked number one, ahead of the company’s official web presence.
Mark Rogers, CEO at Market Sentinel said that brand-owners need to pay more attention to online detractors. “Corporate PRs and brand owners don’t have to give this crucial ground to their critics. Online detractors can be out-thought, out-argued and out-marketed,” Rogers said.
The 20 brands with negative commentary were as follows:
|
ACNielsen UK grocery brand ranking |
Brand |
Google ranking of negative sites # |
|
1 |
Coca-cola |
5,7,8,9 |
|
2 |
Walker's crisps |
2 |
|
3 |
Warburton's bakery |
9 |
|
4 |
Cadbury's dairy milk |
10 |
|
7 |
Kingsmill bread |
1,2 |
|
12 |
Lucozade |
4 |
|
17 |
Bernard Matthews |
5, 9 |
|
18 |
KitKat |
10 |
|
19 |
McCain |
3 |
|
21 |
Flora |
6 |
|
22 |
Fanta |
3,6 |
|
27 |
Heinz baked beans |
9 |
|
28 |
Mr. Kipling |
10 |
|
32 |
Tetley tea |
7 |
|
35 |
Dairylea |
2,3,4,8,10 |
|
38 |
Red Bull |
5,10 |
|
41 |
Bird's Eye fish fingers |
1,9 |
|
42 |
Mars bars |
4 |
|
43 |
Dolmio sauces |
6,10 |
|
46 |
Bird's Eye chicken |
2,4.7,8,10 |
Source: Market Sentinel