Michelin brand leads from the front in cyberspace

Cambridge, UK - In a survey of brand presence in cyberspace, the Michelin brand comes out far ahead of other brands. The gap between leader Michelin and second-position Bridgestone narrowed in the last 12 months.

Using an index-based system, Cambridge-based company Envisional revealed that tyre brands' presence among internet users falls into four broad bands: Michelin out in front with 2.72 units; Bridgestone, Dunlop and Goodyear, each with around 2 units; Continental and Pirelli both with exactly 1.68 units, and the also-ran brands.

Among these also-rans, Avon scored best with just over 1 unit, followed by Firestone, Toyo and Yokohama, each with just under one unit. Falken scored 0.6, while Uniroyal came in last with just 0.38 unit. The study covered only these brands.

The index used by Envisional combines four factors using a weighted algorithm. The four factors are first the number of pages and hosts for each brand. Second, the prominence of the brand on that page, third the number of relevant web pages per site and finally the total coverage of all brands under consideration.

The researchers did not say if the algorithm counted Michelin's food-related coverage as part of the awareness survey. Editorial note: from personal searching the web for news about tyres, Michelin's food-related activities dominate its tyre-related activities in terms of results coming from searches on, "michelin"

In a second element to the survey, Envisional checked for the presence of tyre brand names in close proximity to positive and/or negative words. Historically Pirelli has topped this survey, but in 2007, Michelin again came top while Pirelli sank to fifth position.

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website of Envisional