Tech giants Google and Amazon top best brands poll

Google and Amazon are the most highly rated brands by UK consumers for the second year running, according to the latest annual YouGov BrandIndex table.

The study measures how consumers perceive brands on a daily basis, in terms of quality, value, customer satisfaction, corporate reputation, general impression and likelihood of consumers to recommend the brand.

This year's index shows that the top brands have remained the same in the UK since 2010 except Nokia, which has been dropped from the top 20 list, while beauty brand Dove has been added. YouGov said this was because of Dove's use of social media in its 'real beauty' campaign.

Meanwhile, Nokia suffered from poor sales in 2011 and reported an operating loss of €487m (£425m) in its second quarter and €71m (£62m) in its third quarter.

The YouGov index shows that none of the top 20 brands improved on their performance from last year, apart from Amazon, which closed the gap slightly on Google.

"It's been a tough year for the leading brands, very few have managed to improve their perceptions in consumers' eyes," said Sarah Murphy, YouGov's BrandIndex associate director.

"However, many outside the leaders have certainly bucked that trend, most notably British Airways, Android and mobile phone manufacturer HTC, which achieved the highest increase in consumer ratings from 2010 to 2011."

Three brands which are surprisingly low in the overall ratings are Apple (40th), Facebook (182nd) and Twitter (615th).

YouGov also released brand ratings for specific sectors. Microsoft was the highest rated brand in the office technology sector, followed by Apple and Canon.

Meanwhile, Nokia continued to lead the mobile sector, followed by Samsung and Apple, while Skype led the telecoms sector, followed by O2 and the Post Office.