Can 300,000 consumers be wrong? A new survey claims that many brands could disappear and the public wouldn't mind.
Havas Group's "Meaningful Brands" report shows that people wouldn't care if 74 percent of brands they use vanished, and they also say that 60 percent of the content produced by companies is poor, irrelevant or failing to deliver.
Havas Media Group global managing director Dominique Delport told CNBC that people's rejection of brands is due to too much communication.
"We have an overload of brands, opportunities, so people can switch very easily and… too much communication, kill communication, so you need to be meaningful for people," he said.
The Havas study shows that 75 percent of those surveyed expect brands to "make more of a contribution to our wellbeing," yet only 40 percent think brands are doing so.
The report also produced a ranking of the most meaningful brands, with Google, PayPal, WhatsApp, YouTube, Samsung, Mercedes Benz, Nivea, Microsoft, Ikea and Lego making up the top 10.
"I really think that if you look at all these tech brands, they are at the top of the ranking, why, because they make my life easier, basically and they are quite free. All these apps are nearly free to download, providing great services," Delport added.
Delport defined a meaningful brand as one which functionally works, is value for money and makes someone's life easier, as well as considering the impact it has on a community. Havas looked at 1,500 global brands, getting feedback from 300,000 people in 33 countries.
A separate study by consultancy Brand Finance, also released this week, claims that Google is the most valuable brand in the world, rising from $88.2 billion in 2016 to $109.4 billion. Google has overtaken Apple, which now has a brand value of $107.1 billion, down 27 percent on last year.