According to a recent survey conducted by consultancy CoreBrand – Microsoft is rapidly losing credibility and mindshare with business users.

Its CoreBrand Power 100 2007 study , which polled about 12,000 U.S. business decision-makers showed that Microsoft dropped from number 12 in the ranking of the most powerful U.S. company brands in 2004 to number 59 last year. In 1996, the company ranked number 1 in brand power among 1,200 top companies in about 50 industries, said James Gregory, CEO of CoreBrand.

Read the full article at Infoworld

What I found most interesting is the criteria that CoreBrand uses. They measure brand power using four criteria.

1. Familiarity – It first rates the familiarity of a company’s brand.

Once a company has a certain level of familiarity, they are ranked according to three “attributes of favorability”:

2. Overall Reputation,

3. Perception of management and,

4. Investment potential.

James Gregory said that while Microsoft’s brand is still eminently recognizable, the company is declining in all three favorable attributes for a number of years now and that is worrying, he said.

What I found most revealing in the article was that it took IBM – 10 YEARS to to rebuild the brand’s reputation, after its decline in the 90’s. This is in line with international research that shows that it can take anything from 3 – 12 years to rebuild a reputation.

And what does Microsoft need to remake their reputation – A clearer vision & strong visible leadership.

Once reputation goes, it is not easily restored.