In just 24 hours, Apple went from being ho-hum in charisma to number one in brand intimacy.

What sounds like fickle middle school popularity are actual rankings based on research, data and scientific surveys of, well, fickle people.

Apple ended its workweek ranked first for brand intimacy among millennials, according to a report MBLM, a marketing firm that specializes in helping brands form said connection. Apple as a brand must have worked hard on itself over the last year because it beat out Netflix, which was tops among millennials last year.

On Thursday, a group called The Charisma Index listed Apple eighth. Amazon and Google were one and two. Kellogg’s beat the tech giant for the seventh spot.

Breakfast cereal comes out ahead of the iPhone X?

The two reports probably shouldn’t be compared. Each was based on different questions, indicators and study groups. Still, some of the same brand names appear on both Top 10 lists (hey, you’re all winners).

The high ranking for intimacy makes sense for Apple. It has concocted a rather convincing Kool-Aid based on product design, functionality, and marketing that suggest it has made something really special just for you.

“We love that brand intimacy is agnostic to the financial size/performance of brands – evidenced by the fact that there are relatively small companies in the top 10,” Mario Natarelli, a partner at MBLM, told Fortune magazine last month. “This is proof that building a strong brand regardless of size require a fundamental shift and reorientation towards focusing on the bonds that your brand forms with its stakeholders and finding ways to nurture and manage those bonds.

“(Brands) who succeed in shaping stronger bonds also perform well financially. One example of this is the higher the degree of intimacy, the more people are willing to pay.”

MBLM will release the full report later this month.

Source: cult of mac