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The second annual BRANDZ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands ranking published in cooperation with the Financial Times was announced on Monday by leading global market research and consulting firm Millward Brown. Google has risen to the top of this year's ranking, taking the number one spot with a brand value of $66,434 million. This was followed by General Electric ($61,880 million), Microsoft ($54,951 million) and Coca-Cola ($44,134 million).
Produced by Millward Brown Optimor, the firm's finance and ROI arm, the ranking identifies the most powerful brands in the world as measured by their dollar value. A full report will be published today, exclusively in the Financial Times.
The aggregate value of all brands in the BRANDZ Top 100 increased by 10.6% in one year, from $1.44 trillion in 2006 to $1.6 trillion in 2007.
"Success stories from this year's BRANDZ Top 100 demonstrate that winning brands leverage major market trends effectively to create business value," said Joanna Seddon, global CEO Millward Brown Optimor. "Strong brands are capable of extending into areas of opportunity to access new revenue streams and to help businesses respond to market changes."
The most notable trends emerging from this year's BRANDZ Top 100 include:
1. The rise of the East – Today, consumers in emerging markets – especially the ones known as the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) have more disposable income than ever before. In order to succeed in the BRICS, Western brands must offer products or services that are relevant to the local consumers. Fast food brands such as KFC ($4,485m) and McDonald’s ($33,138 million) appeal to BRIC consumers looking for a Western dining experience. Apparel brands including Nike ($10,290 million), Levi’s ($1,041 million) and Zara ($6,469 million) fill the gap between local brands and imported luxury brands by providing “affordable fashion” to young consumers. Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton ($22,686 million), Rolex ($5,387 million) are also seeing significant growth in these markets as wealthy consumers look for brands that represent their status.
2. Converging technologies – Convergence is the hot topic in technology: The ability to mix and match different services (voice, data, GPS, music, internet, email etc) and deliver them over different devices has the potential to improve the lives of consumers. In the face of increasing complexity, branding has been leveraged to simplify and contrast different offerings: from Apple's ($24,728 million) basics-but-smarter iPhone to Sony Ericsson's Walkman-branded music phones to Nokia's ($31,670 million) all-in-one mobile computers, manufacturers are crafting coherent offerings that are aligned with their brand identity. Like Apple and Nokia, strong brands are able to stretch so parent companies can increase revenue streams by investing in high growth ventures.
3. Delivering on Corporate Social Responsibility – Delivering on the promise of corporate social responsibility helped boost the value of major brands including BP ($5,931 million), Shell ($ 4,679 million) and Toyota ($ 33,427 million). BP was the first major oil company to address climate change with its 'beyond petroleum' brand positioning. BP executed on that brand positioning to become one of the top three global suppliers of solar energy. Shell followed suit. Toyota's success in marketing its hybrid model Prius contributed to its positive brand image and its continued leadership in the automotive sector.
4. Fast food brands react to health conscious consumers – Rising concerns about healthy eating disrupted the fast food industry that had enjoyed continuous growth since the 1980s. Most fast food chains, including McDonald's ($33,138 million), repositioned themselves with the introduction of healthier food alternatives. Burger King ($1,401million) took the opposite stance through marketing campaigns that called attention to the chain's original offering: the high-calorie and masculine hamburger. The 63% increase in Burger King's brand value proves that strong brands succeed whether they follow or defy market trends.
Simon Targett, who edited the Financial Times Global Brands Supplement said: “A lot can change in world business over 12 months, and this year’s brand rankings are testimony to that with Google taking pole position as the world’s most powerful brand.”
Commenting on this year's BRANDZ Top 100 ranking, Eileen Campbell, global CEO of Millward Brown said: “"It is a huge achievement to become one of the world's most powerful brands and Millward Brown congratulates all of the companies featured in this year's BRANDZ Top 100. These top performers demonstrate the real financial value that successful business and brand management can deliver. There are tons of actionable insights that can be derived from these rankings. They prove that a blend of good business leadership, responsible financial management and powerful marketing are an unbeatable combination that can be leveraged to create and grow corporate wealth."
The BRANDZ Top 100 is the only brand ranking to combine financials with solid measures of consumer sentiment derived from WPP's BRANDZ database, the world's largest repository of brand equity data. The BRANDZ study has interviewed more than one million consumers globally and covers 39,000 brands worldwide. The BRANDZ Top 100 is the first study to cover both business and consumer brands and to include predictive metrics of future brand performance. Market performance metrics and financial data were obtained from Datamonitor and Bloomberg respectively.
The complete BRANDZ Top 100 report with category and regional breakdowns as well as additional analysis is available online at www.millwardbrown.com/mboptimor, www.brandz.com and at www.ft.com About the BRANDZ™ Top 100 ranking Developed for WPP’s operating companies by Millward Brown Optimor, the BRANDZ ranking of the world’s Top 100 most powerful brands is based on data from the BRANDZ database. The BRANDZ study, conducted annually by Millward Brown, measures the brand equity of almost 40,000 global “consumer facing” brands, and has interviewed over 1 million consumers globally. Consumer perception of a brand is a key input in determining brand value because brands are a combination of business performance, product delivery, clarity of positioning, and leadership. In addition to utilizing BRANDZ™ data, the Top 100 ranking assesses Brand Value (using market and consumer research, in combination with financial data from Bloomberg and Datamonitor, to calculate and break-down intangible earnings), Brand Contribution (the brand’s effectiveness in driving business earnings), and Brand Momentum (an index of expected short-term brand growth). The ranking takes into account regional variations since even for truly global brands measures of brand contribution might differ substantially across countries.
About Millward Brown Millward Brown (www.millwardbrown.com) is one of the world's leading research agencies and is expert in effective advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research. Through the use of an integrated suite of validated research solutions -- both qualitative and quantitative -- Millward Brown helps clients build strong brands and services. Millward Brown has more than 70 offices in 44 countries. Additional practices include Millward Brown's Global Media Practice (media effectiveness unit), Millward Brown Optimor (focused on helping clients maximize the returns on their brand and marketing investments), Millward Brown Precis (PR measurement practice), Dynamic Logic (the world leader in digital marketing effectiveness), and KMR (provider of global Target Group Index [TGI] the world's leading media and market profiling tool). Millward Brown is part of Kantar, WPP's insight, information and consultancy group.
About the Financial Times: The Financial Times Group, one of the world’s leading business information companies, aims to provide a broad range of business information and services to the growing audience of internationally minded business people. The FT Group includes: 1. The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business newspapers, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, the newspaper is printed in 23 cities across the globe, has a daily circulation of 461,000 and a readership of more than 1.4 million people worldwide. 2. FT.com is one of the world's leading business information websites, and the internet partner of the FT newspaper. Since its relaunch in May 2002, the website has continued to be the definitive home for business intelligence on the web, providing an essential source of news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community. FT.com attracts 5.3 million unique monthly users (ABC electronic figures January 2007) generating 40.4 million page views and has 90,000 subscribers. 3. The FT Group’s pan-European network of national business newspapers and online services including France’s leading business newspaper and website, Les Echos and lesechos.fr. In February 2000, the FT launched a new German language newspaper, FT Deutschland, with a fully integrated online business news and data service. 4. Through FT Interactive Data, the FT Group is one of the world’s leading sources of securities pricing and specialist financial information to global institutional, professional and individual investors. Its products include eSignal, an online realtime streaming quotation service for brokers and active traders. 5. FT Business, which produces specialist information on the retail, personal and institutional finance industries. It publishes the UK’s premier personal finance magazine, Investors Chronicle, and The Banker, Money Management and Financial Adviser for professional advisers. 6. The Mergermarket Group, whose products and services provide the global advisory and corporate communities with intelligence and analysis. With regional head offices in London, New York and Hong Kong and 200 journalists in 46 locations worldwide, reliable and validated proprietary intelligence and historical data is provided via the mergermarket, dealReporter, Debtwire and wealthmonitor on-line platforms. 7. The Financial Times Group also has a stake in a number of joint ventures, including; FTSE International, a joint venture with the London Stock Exchange. Vedomosti, Russia’s leading business newspaper and a partnership venture with Dow Jones and Independent Media A 50% stake in BDFM, publishers of South Africa’s leading financial newspapers and websites. A 50% stake in The Economist Group, which publishes the world’s leading weekly business and current affairs journal. A 13.85% stake in Business Standard, one of India’s leading financial newspapers.The FT Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media group.
* In 2007 the Financial Times has won the following awards:
The Financial Times has also received 8 nominations for the Business Journalist of the Year Awards and 6 nominations for the Newspaper Awards. © Copyright 2007 by Finfacts.com |
