A U.S. study found Wednesday that Samsung Electronics has taken the top spot from Apple in smartphones in customer loyalty and engagement.

According to the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, Samsung was ranked No.1 in the smartphone category recording the highest emotional engagement level with its customers.

Apple came in second, followed by LG Electronics in third, Nokia and Sony tied for fourth and Motorola in fifth place, it said. Taiwanese HTC and BlackBerry maker RIM were also next in line.

The Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, which surveyed 39,000 U.S. customers, is an annual study that examines customers’ relationships with 375 brands in 54 categories since 1997.

Samsung also came in first in laptop PCs, tied with Apple, while Taiwan’s Asus and Japan’s Toshiba and Sony followed.

The Suwon-based IT powerhouse also secured its top position in flat-screen TVs. LG Electronics dropped to fourth place in the 2013 survey.

Amazon also topped Apple in tablet PCs with its Kindle e-readers while Hyundai and Ford were tied in first place for cars.

Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, told marketing association Loyalty 360 that leading companies in the customer loyalty engagement index have established so-called emotional engagements with customers.

This indicates that loyal customers are six times more likely to reject competitive offers despite discounts and are as likely to think better of a brand as well as recommend it to friends, according to Passikoff.

“The rule of thumb should be to view the decision process to buy a brand ― and then buy it again ― as more emotional than it is rational. Estimates for most categories report a 70-30 ratio,” he said.

Passikoff said all index-leading firms have higher delivery against emotional category engagement drivers, while citing the increased expectation in personalization and a sense of personal productivity in the smartphone category for Samsung’s move past Apple.

By Cho Ji-hyun
(sharon@heraldcorp.com)