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Colbert takes Amazon to task

The Colbert effect may not take as much of a toll on the teflon coating of Amazon.com as you might think.

Despite a concerted attack by the legendary late night comedian over Amazon’s antics with book publisher Hachette, Amazon retained the top ranking among U.S. brands, according to the YouGov BrandIndex report.

The report placed Amazon.com ahead of Subway, YouTube, Ford and Netflix.

The authors of the report write:

Even with a few chinks in its armor – battling Hachette Book Group and ongoing reports of less-than-ideal warehouse conditions – Amazon retains the top position achieved at the end of 2013, having moved up from the number two spot on last year’s mid-year rankings. The first half of the year saw the company’s Prime service expand its HBO and music streaming offerings, and debut the Fire smart phone.

chart-amazonbuzzYouGov BrandIndex CEO Ted Marzilli tells AdWeek that Amazon.com was able to weather the PR blips since potential book buyers impacted by the Hachette dispute are a small slice of the population.

That’s not necessarily the case with retailer Target, which fell 14 spots to No. 21 on the list after a data breach was said to cost the company up to $450 million.

Colbert, who compared Jeff Bezos to Lord Voldermort, the villain in Harry Potter, directed his viewers to start buying books from Portland-based Powell’s.

As the chart shows, both Apple and Google climbed back into the top 10 after falling off last year.

The authors wrote about Google:

The company has been relentlessly updating and introducing products while engaging with its users from the increased buzz of Google Glass, creating new Doodles on its home page to aggressive advertising for its two streaming products, Chromecast and Google Play.

And they noted about Apple:

While no new products were introduced in the first half of the year, consumers are widely anticipating the iPhone 6 in the second half of the year, and the company generated other positive news, from the drop in iPhone thefts through use of its Activation Lock to its rousing health ad (“Chicken Fat”) and whimsical parenting one.

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