Simplicity: It's no secret that Steve Jobs dislikes buttons. Sometimes genius is just figuring out what you have in common with millions of other people and making that commonality a reality. With that in mind, Apple has managed to make its products sleek and simple without insulting their customers by dumbing down either the functionality or the design. No one likes to feel stupid or intimidated by technology, so focusing on simplicity is a sure way to appeal to a demographic that stretches from seven-year-olds to seventy-year-olds. A brandchannel reader characterized Apple's brand very simply by describing it as, "Human-oriented innovation." Technology is, after all, about the people business.

Brands that fall not far from the Apple tree

Tied for second: None and Microsoft.

It's not often that nothing wins something, but when it came to answering "Which brand that no longer exists would you resurrect?" and "What brand do you think is truly (going) green?" None was the big winner. Why? Because our readers claim that in the competitive branding industry dead brands deserved their ghoulish fate, and that any brand that claims to be truly green isn't being completely forthright because, as an Australian reader says, "no brand controls the complete life cycle of their products and has the energy sourced to create them from totally renewable resources."

Microsoft had its healthy share of supporters and detractors. Yet, as a commenter pointed out regarding last week's survey, since 74 percent of the nearly 2,000 respondents were in the marketing field, they almost certainly arrived at the survey with an affinity for Apple since many industry professional use Macs. An excellent point, especially for those visitors not familiar with brandchannel's readership. However, both Microsoft and Apple receive credit for instilling a level of passion in their supporters that is usually only witnessed at religious ceremonies involving feinting housewives and live bands.

Obviously, the rivalry between Microsoft and Apple is alive and well. Survey respondents criticized Apple for a slew of reasons ranging from being insensitive to the needs of other cultures, being too expensive, and feeling the need to introduce a new product "every three months." When readers stated that Microsoft was the brand they'd most like to argue with and to rebrand, many said so because they felt it used its might and power to strong arm consumers into using Microsoft products. If competition truly does benefit the consumer, we should all be thankful these two brands have each other.

Plenty of other brands impressed our survey respondents. Virgin Group, for example, had a very strong connection with many of our readers. Much like Apple and Microsoft, the Virgin brand is closely associated with a high profile—and uber-entrepreneurial—front man: Richard Branson. However, Branson is more than a one-person invest-and-hype machine; much like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, he is the living embodiment—perhaps even an archetype—of his brand's values. Who else could invite some of the world's most influential people to his private tropical island to talk about how to save the world? Our readers consistently brought up Branson when detailing what they liked about the Virgin Group brand. Dozens of our readers expressed admiration along these lines: "A little shocking and into everything with panache and funk but philosophically well-grounded."

Nike also ran away with a large contingency of votes. This is not surprising considering that many of our readers—especially those in their thirties and forties—equate the Nike brand with health, vitality, and Michael Jordan. Yet, in 2007 the brand's chief executive, Mark Parker, took steps to ensure that Nike's cachet maintained a youthful and contemporary vibe by hiring Los Angeles cartoon artist Mister Cartoon to design a special line of shoes for the brand. By doing so Nike is seeking to intersect with a younger and more culturally diverse demographic and encourage them to "Just Do It," with funk and a hip attitude.

Jim Thompson is the editor of brandchannel.com.