Honda took the No. 1 slot among full-line automotive brands in a closely watched ranking of dozens of consumer products and service brands.
The automaker, which maintains its Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. subsidiary in Marysville, beat out Toyota and last year’s top automotive brand, Ford, for the top spot in the 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend study. Honda ranked No. 3 in last year’s study.
Harris took the pulse of more than 38,500 consumers online from Jan. 31-Feb. 20 to compile an equity score for more than 1,500 brands. The score is based on measures that include public awareness of the brand and whether consumers want to do business with it.
Honda’s equity score topped out at 62.55, edging Toyota’s 62.51. The category average score was 53.02. Rounding out the top eight full line automotive brands were Chevrolet, Nissan, Subaru, Hyundai and Volkswagen, which ranked Nos. 4-8.
Honda’s Acura division also ranked among the best luxury automotive brands this year. Acura ranked No. 5 in the EquiTrend study behind Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus and Cadillac. Infiniti and Audi both ranked lower than Acura.
After being battered by natural disasters, a panned Civic design and slow sales in 2011, Honda has recovered in 2012 with improved sales and some positive exposure in recent rankings.
Last week, the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study ranked Honda No. 5 behind four luxury brands, with several models ranking among the best in their categories. Sales spiked by 47.6 percent to 133,997 in May, thanks in part to improvements in sales of its Accord and Civic sedans.
courtesy of bizjournals.com
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