YouTube, Google, Netflix, Amazon and Subway are the five brands best perceived by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, according to YouGov BrandIndex, the only daily consumer perception research service of brands.
Google, which owns YouTube, has a long history supporting LGBT rights. Co-founder Sergey Brin has publicly opposed California’s Proposition 8 since 2008, while the company offers tax benefits to its LGBT employees, has issued a coming out/tolerance employee video on YouTube, and currently adds a rainbow image to the top of search results of gay-related searches.
Disneyland/Disney World, which ranks #7, has had an annual Gay Day for 20 years, despite protests from religious groups and recently hosting a gala for Focus On The Family.
Other brands which rank high on YouGov BrandIndex’s list include Whole Foods (#6), iPhone (#8), HBO (#10), Lowe’s (#11), Cheerio’s (#12), Food Network (#13), Ford (#14), M&M’s (#15), Apple (#17), Trader Joe’s (#18), Bose (#19) and iPod (#20).
The 10th best perceived brand, Claritin, is also the highest gaining brand with the LGBT demo over the past 90 days. Nike, which ranks #16, is the second highest gaining brand.
AT&T’s high positioning on the gainers chart (#4) comes at the expense of GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios stepping down over his organization’s public backing of AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile. GLAAD sent a letter to the FCC supporting the merger after receiving $50,000 from the wireless phone company.
Southern dining chain Chick-Fil-A made #6 on the gainers chart, recovering from a February blow-up when they were accused of supporting events that were connected with anti-gay groups.
For this study, results were filtered for U.S. citizens who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Margin of error is +/- 6%.All of the more than 1,100 brands that YouGov BrandIndex tracks were measured using the company’s 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?"
