With the imminent release of the Galaxy S8 phone, Samsung’s consumer perception caught back up with Apple after its devastating Galaxy Note 7 recall prompted its lowest scores in 10 years.
While Samsung may have accomplished this feat just in time for its new product introduction, the company still has not fully recovered almost eight months since the Note 7 crisis broke.
After defective Galaxy Note 7’s hit the market last September, with videos of explosions flooding the Internet, Samsung’s consumer perception dropped deeply into negative perception territory. That incident came after a long period of several months when Samsung pulled just ahead of Apple in a long head to head perception battle.
YouGov BrandIndex measured consumer perception in this research with its Buzz score, which asks respondents: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"
A score can range from -100 to 100 with a zero score equaling a neutral position. Example: A score of 35 means that 35% more people said they were positive than negative about the brand.
For the first several months of 2016, Samsung’s Buzz score hovered in the 21 to 23 range, while Apple fluctuated between 15 and 21. After the Galaxy Note 7 crisis broke, Samsung fell to a bottom score of -27 around October 17th.
Samsung then climbed back up to a Buzz score of 15 by Christmas time, where it stayed in that area until recently when it moved up to 19, the same score as Apple. Samsung is still currently three to six points short of where it was pre-Galaxy Note crisis.
Buzz: Samsung, Apple
