Red/Blue Rankings: Fox News Channel Returns, Home Depot Is Off

Ted MarzilliCEO YouGov Direct
October 30, 2014, 4:16 PM GMT+0

Fox News Channel, which dropped off the 10 best perceived brands by Republicans last year, has returned to the number 10 spot this year.

Samsung premiered on the top 10 rankings of both Democrats and Independents.

However, one brand dropped off the top 10 rankings of all three major political affiliations – Home Depot.

As always, there are brands that all parties give their highest marks to: Amazon, Craftsman, Dawn, Johnson & Johnson, and Clorox. But political parties have favorites they can call their own: History Channel, M&Ms and Fox News Channel are only on the top 10 GOP list, while Barnes & Noble, making its debut, landed only on the Democratic list. Independents, those consumers who are ‘in the middle’ between Democrats and Republicans, share high-ranking brands with both Democrats and Republicans but there is no brand that appears only on the Independent top 10 list.

There are three brands that appear solely on the Democrat Top 10: PBS, Dove and Barnes & Noble, while Republicans can claim the History Channel, M&M's and Fox News Channel all to themselves. Independents have one brand on their Top 10 list to call their own: Quaker.

Netflix made the biggest brand health gains with both Democrats and Independents over the past year, while Carnival Cruise Lines did the same with Republicans. As a matter of fact, Carnival Cruise Lines notched top 10 gains with all three parties, along with Capital One.

While there are brands that rank high with all three parties, there are ones they share on the opposite end of the spectrum as well: all three affiliations have put energy drinks, cable companies, Chuck E. Cheese, Motel 6 and MTV at the bottom of their perception lists, while Democrats and Republicans have some of their most negative scores for dating sites.

YouGov BrandIndex’s entire universe of 1,100+ consumer brands was measured with its Index score, the company’s centerpiece indicator of brand health, combining sub-scores of General Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Reputation, and Willingness to Recommend. All results were filtered for respondents’ political party affiliation. All respondents were adults 18+.

YouGov BrandIndex’s Index score ranges from 100 to -100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.

Index Scores: Democrats

Index Scores: Republicans

Index Scores: Independents