Lippincott Unveils Go-to Brands 2025: LEGO, Canva, and Affirm Top U.S. Customer Rankings

LEGO, Canva, and Affirm earn Best in Show for top categories

John Deere, Cadillac, Rivian, Klarna, NVIDIA, Amazon, Samsung, Google, Peloton, H-E-B, and Costco named standout Go-to Brands

NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Drawing on its annual survey of more than 15,000 American customers, global brand, marketing, and experience consultancy Lippincott announced its inaugural U.S. Go-to Brands List, spotlighting the nation's most beloved and trusted brands as rated by their own customers. Leading the pack are LEGO, Canva, and Affirm, each recognized as Best in Show in their respective categories.

The unique Go-to Brands framework, developed in 2019, measures brands on two key dimensions: Connection, a measure of how deeply customers love a brand, and Progress, a measure of how effectively a brand helps customers achieve their goals, big or small.

Brands excelling in both areas earn the coveted "Go-to" status and can see up to five times faster growth than their peers. For the 2025 list, Lippincott introduced an additional dimension, Momentum, highlighting brands that customers believe have their best days ahead, offering a forward-looking lens on brand vitality.

The list highlights 14 brands that stand out for exceptional performance across Connection, Progress, and Momentum attributes, earning superlatives such as the Crowd Pleaser, the Soulmate, and the Tribe Builder, alongside category Best in Show winners.

Category Highlights:

• Connection (Best in Show: LEGO): Celebrated for its timeless emotional appeal across generations. Other superlative winners include John Deere, Cadillac, Rivian, Costco, Klarna, and H-E-B.
• Progress (Best in Show: Canva): Recognized for empowering users with intuitive, creative tools. Other superlative winners include NVIDIA, Amazon, Samsung, Peloton, and Google.
• Momentum (Best in Show: Affirm): Lauded for its dynamic growth and fair, transparent financing that builds trust and loyalty with millions of customers.

In addition, the list highlights the "Go-to Brands of Tomorrow," spotlighting brands that haven't yet reached the echelon of Go-to Brands but have high momentum according to their customers. These brands include OpenAI, OLIPOP, SoFi, Wegmans, WNBA, and Liquid I.V.

Michael D'Esopo, CEO, Lippincott said: "Go-to Brands are distinctive because they're solely identified by real customers' responses, at scale, to incisive questions that reveal which brands they actively rely on and admit to love. These are the brands customers would miss if they disappeared tomorrow, because they make life better today.

When people feel a strong emotional connection to a brand and can see how it helps them progress in their lives, it begins to hold real meaning. For businesses, this translates to accelerated growth in good times and swifter recovery in tough times."

A seven-year global study—now with standalone U.S. results

The U.S. results come from Lippincott's annual Go-to Brands global survey, which captures the voices of more than 40,000 consumers across five countries, evaluating 500 brands across 18 industries each year. The U.S. Go-to Brands 2025 list is underpinned by longitudinal data gathered by Lippincott since 2019 and analyzed through its proprietary Brand Aperture^® diagnostic tool.

David Mayer, Senior Partner and Head of Marketing and Customer Strategy at Lippincott, added: "Time and again, marketing leaders turn to us for quantitative tools that clarify how brands can grow in today's volatile climate. Our research-based Go-to Brands framework was developed to provide actionable guidance on the two most important brand dynamics that fuel growth: how to build deep emotional connection and deliver real progress. These levers cultivate customer affinity that transcends short-term economic fluctuations and drives measurable business growth. 

It is the truest view of brand value today: measured not in dollars, but in customer choice."

Chris Ciompi, Senior Partner, Marketing and Customer Strategy at Lippincott, said: "Our CMO clients aren't coming to us asking for help making their brands more valuable. That's intangible; it's a balance sheet item. They want help with growth, with revenue, with impact on the income statement, because that is what their CEO bosses and CFO peers are demanding from them."

For the full list of winners and superlatives, visit: https://www.lippincott.com/go-to-brands-2025/.

About Lippincott

Lippincott is a global brand, marketing and experience consultancy committed to helping companies address their most complex brand challenges. Identifying fresh opportunities and realizing brand possibilities is our specialty. Since 1943, Lippincott has produced lasting, transformative impact for clients across a range of sectors. As part of the Oliver Wyman group, Lippincott brings high-caliber industry, risk and operational insights into our work, blending a management consultancy's strategic rigor with a proven legacy of creativity.

SOURCE Lippincott