Google, Microsoft and Samsung are among the brands that top Carat's Brand EQ Index.

According to the Dentsu-owned media agency, The EQ Index brings a different lens to an age-old question: "What are the traits of the most successful brands?" 

Beginning in March 2020, Carat surveyed 10,000 people about their perceptions of 48 globally known brands in five categories: retail, food & drink, technology, automobile and financial services.

Respondents in 10 markets evaluated how well they think brands are doing in different areas of emotional intelligence: empathy, self-awareness, social skills, internal motivation, and self-regulation.

Given the active state of change during this evaluation period, the raw results draw from deep introspection on behalf of the survey’s participants. 

Microsoft is also one of the highest achieving brands in Australia’s Top 20 as part of the Brand EQ Index, scoring 72% along with Google. Other brands include Samsung, eBay, Kellogg’s, Netflix, Coca-Cola, Nike and Gillette which scored 65% and above. Below that is Nivea on 64%, Ikea, Subway and Philips on 63% and Adidas, Apple, KFC and Panasonic 62%, with Mercedes and MasterCard both on 60%. 

"Through our research, we know that ‘human’ brands outpace their competitors and drive stronger business performance," Sue Squillace, CEO Carat ANZ said.

"That is why our new positioning and process ‘Designing for People’, is rooted in design-thinking principles of empathy and agile collaboration to bring different disciplines together to work at pace and design customer centric experiences."