Special Report

25 Brands Customers Are Abandoning

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Can you think of products or services you no longer use or at least use considerably less? Well, according to a recent survey of brand loyalty, there is a good chance you have fallen out of love with HBO’s, Disney’s, and Spotify’s streaming services, Jeep SUVs, or Sephora’s cosmetic products. (These are companies with the worst reputations.)

Perhaps the most notorious plunge in brand loyalty has been that of X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter acquired by Elon Musk last year. Advertisers are wary of the risk of having their products associated with an increase in posts and images promoted by spambots and purveyors of misinformation and propaganda. This increase came after Musk gutted the company’s content moderation efforts. Forbes magazine estimates that X is now worth half of the $44 billion Musk paid for the platform amid an exodus of millions of users.

According to a 24/7 Wall St.’s review of Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Leaders List 2023, which provides loyalty rankings for 100 brands, customers are least happy about X under Musk’s leadership, with the company’s loyalty ranking plummeting to 92nd place this year from 47th in 2022. (These are the top brands out of the 987 assessed in 110 industry categories in its Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.) 

Using Brand Keys list, 24/7 Wall St. ranked brands by the number of spots they declined in the ranking from 2022 to 2023. To break ties we used the 2023 rank. We also added revenue for the brand’s company in its most recent fiscal year and one-year revenue change, using data from Yahoo! Finance. For private companies we used the companies’ own reports or noted the source. For foreign companies we converted their revenue figures into U.S. dollars.

Among the 25 brands that customers are fleeing are retailers like Old Navy, Whole Foods, and Starbucks. There are also tech brands, including Facebook and Google. MSNBC news channel and Verizon are also on the list. Despite these brand loyalty issues, only four companies on this list reported a year-over-year revenue decline: Block, which owns the Square online payment service, Meta (Facebook), The Gap (Old Navy), and Berkshire Hathaway (GEICO insurance). (Here are iconic fashion brands that no longer exist.)

Here are brands customers are fleeing in 2023.

25. Jeep

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 3 spots, from 42 to 45
  • Category: Automotive
  • Company: Stellantis N.V.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: 179.6 billion euro (est. $191.5 billion) — 20.2% growth from previous year

24. GEICO

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 3 spots, from 45 to 48
  • Category: Insurance
  • Company: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $234.2 billion — 34.0% decline from previous year

23. Chase

Thomas Cooper / Getty Images News via Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 3 spots, from 48 to 51
  • Category: Banks
  • Company: JPMorgan Chase & Co.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $128.7 billion — 5.8% growth from previous year

22. Verizon

RiverNorthPhotography / iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 3 spots, from 58 to 61
  • Category: Wireless Providers
  • Company: Verizon Communications Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $136.8 billion — 2.4% growth from previous year

21. State Farm

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 3 spots, from 71 to 74
  • Category: Insurance
  • Company: State Farm
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $89.3 billion (private) — 8.6% growth from previous year

20. MSNBC

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 4 spots, from 12 to 16
  • Category: Cable News
  • Company: Comcast Corporation
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $121.4 billion — 4.3% growth from previous year

19. Microsoft

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 4 spots, from 35 to 39
  • Category: Computers
  • Company: Microsoft Corporation
  • Company revenue for year ended 6/30/2023: $211.9 billion — 6.9% growth from previous year

18. Sam’s Club

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 4 spots, from 53 to 57
  • Category: Price Clubs
  • Company: Walmart Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 1/31/2023: $611.3 billion — 6.7% growth from previous year

17. Starbucks

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 4 spots, from 65 to 69
  • Category: Coffee
  • Company: Starbucks Corporation
  • Company revenue for year ended 9/30/2022: $32.3 billion — 11.0% growth from previous year

16. Haagen – Dazs

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 4 spots, from 69 to 73
  • Category: Ice Cream
  • Company: Froneri
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: 5.1 billion euro (est. $5.4 billion — private) — 19.7% growth from previous year

15. Ralph Lauren

anouchka / Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 4 spots, from 73 to 77
  • Category: Apparel Retailers
  • Company: Ralph Lauren Corporation
  • Company revenue for year ended 3/31/2023: $6.4 billion — 3.6% growth from previous year

14. Sephora

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 6 spots, from 40 to 46
  • Category: Cosmetics
  • Company: LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: 79.2 billion euro (est. $84.4 billion) — 23.3% growth from previous year

13. CVS

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 6 spots, from 44 to 50
  • Category: Pharmacy
  • Company: CVS Health Corporation
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $322.5 billion — 10.4% growth from previous year

12. Google Wallet

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 7 spots, from 72 to 79
  • Category: Online Payments
  • Company: Alphabet Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $282.8 billion — 9.8% growth from previous year

11. Google

JHVEPhoto / iStock Editorial via Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 8 spots, from 9 to 17
  • Category: Search Engines
  • Company: Alphabet Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $282.8 billion — 9.8% growth from previous year

10. Disney +

Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda / iStock Editorial via Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 9 spots, from 4 to 13
  • Category: Streaming Video
  • Company: The Walt Disney Company
  • Company revenue for year ended 9/30/2022: $82.7 billion — 22.7% growth from previous year

9. Mastercard

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  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 9 spots, from 81 to 90
  • Category: Credit Cards
  • Company: Mastercard Incorporated
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $22.2 billion — 17.8% growth from previous year

8. Facebook

Derick Hudson / iStock Editorial via Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 12 spots, from 46 to 58
  • Category: Social Networking
  • Company: Meta Platforms, Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $116.6 billion — 1.1% decline from previous year

7. Whole Foods

anouchka / iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 13 spots, from 31 to 44
  • Category: Natural Foods
  • Company: Amazon.com, Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $514.0 billion — 9.4% growth from previous year

6. Paramount +

gregobagel / iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 15 spots, from 51 to 66
  • Category: Streaming Video
  • Company: Paramount Global
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $30.2 billion (National Amusement is parent) — 5.5% growth from previous year

5. MAX ( HBO )

Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 16 spots, from 36 to 52
  • Category: Streaming Video
  • Company: Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $33.8 billion — 177.4% growth from previous year

4. Old Navy

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 16 spots, from 43 to 59
  • Category: Apparel Retailers
  • Company: The Gap, Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 1/31/2023: $15.6 billion — 6.3% decline from previous year

3. Spotify

Bence Bezeredy / iStock Editorial via Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 21 spots, from 62 to 83
  • Category: Online Music
  • Company: Spotify Technology S.A.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: 11.7 billion euro (est. $12.5 billion) — 21.3% growth from previous year

2. Square

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 26 spots, from 52 to 78
  • Category: Online Payments
  • Company: Block, Inc.
  • Company revenue for year ended 12/31/2022: $17.5 billion — 0.7% decline from previous year

1. X ( Twitter )

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images
  • Decline in loyalty ranking, 2022 to 2023: 45 spots, from 47 to 92
  • Category: Social Networking
  • Company: X Corp.
  • Company revenue for year ended : Private (made $5.1 billion in 2021 and reportedly $4.4 billion in 2022, according to Business of Apps)

 

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