iPhone, Facebook top Mena word-of-mouth rankings

Apple's iPhone emerged No.1 in a new brand-ranking study, the second consecutive year it has topped the field in the UAE.

The 2019 YouGov NextGen Word of Mouth Rankings revealed that the flagship smartphone of the US tech giant was the "most positively talked-about brand amongst young adults in the UAE", a group that is in the 18-to-34-year-old range.

YouGov's daily brand tracking tool, BrandIndex, considered the opinions of those respondents, collected online over the past year to discover the 10 brands they have been talked about the most positively with friends and family, whether in person, online or through social media.

Unsurprisingly, it was a tech-dominated list, with Apple (third), Facebook (fourth), Samsung (sixth), Samsung Galaxy (seventh) and WhatsApp (10th) making the list.

Dubai flag carrier Emirates was second. The rest of the top 10 includes KFC (fifth), retailer Carrefour (eighth) and Dubai's largest bank Emirates NBD (ninth).

Emirates climbed two spots, while KFC jumped the most with three. WhatsApp was the biggest decliner, slipping four places.

Most-improved in UAE

Streaming service Netflix, meanwhile, was the most-improved brand in the UAE, the study added. Retail names made up the bulk of the list; the rest of the top 10 include food-delivery service Talabat, Tide, Huawei, Amazon.ae, Nestle Pure Life, Lux, Oasis, California Garden and Al Ain.

Amazon.ae, which replaced Souq.com, "created a lot of chatter".

Saudi Arabia, Egypt

In Saudi Arabia, Al Rahji Bank was No.1, followed by Saudi Arabian Airlines, iPhone, Apple, Almarai, Western Union, Al Baik, Huawei, Samsung and Mada.

In Egypt, Facebook was tops, followed by WhatsApp, Uber, National Bank of Egypt, McDonald's, Dream Park, Huawei, Pepsi, Souq.com and KFC.

- alvin@khaleejtimes.com