Coca-Cola retains #1 spot in Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report, Apple at #2 and IBM at #3
Coca-Cola, Apple and IBM lead Interbrand’s 13th annual Best Global Brands report. While Coca-Cola retained its #1 position, Apple jumped to #2 with stellar sales in both developed and emerging markets over the last year. Social media giant, Facebook (#69), enters the report after making headlines as the third largest IPO in US history, and Google (#4) experienced a 26% increase in brand value over the last year, exceeding rival Microsoft’s (#5) brand value for the first time in the history of Interbrand’s report.
James Bickford, Managing Director for Interbrand NZ, says the future of brands is human.
Says Bickford: “The 2012 Best Global Brands report shows us that the world’s best brands are playing to win on the digital frontier, engaging with brand humanity and recognising the new rules of corporate citizenship.
“New Zealand needs to catch up with the new rules of corporate responsibility. The relationship between companies and their target audiences is less and less one of broadcast and image control, and increasingly about engagement and participation. The barrier between brands and consumers is increasingly transparent. “The wisdom of the crowd” is applied to everything. Corporate responsibility trends will only accelerate in the years ahead: to interactivity, to consumer participation, to instantaneous reaction and real-time multi-platform dialogue between brands and their audiences. New Zealand companies seeking a market edge need to compete not only in the arena of product and services, but also in the wider world.”
Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy, publishes its Best Global Brands report of the world’s 100 most valuable brands on an annual basis. Interbrand’s methodology – the first of its kind to be ISO certified – analyzes the many ways a brand touches and benefits an organization, from driving bottom-line business results to delivering on customer expectations.
To develop its report, Interbrand examines the three key aspects that contribute to a brand’s value:
· The financial performance of the branded products or service
· The role the brand plays in influencing consumer choice
· The strength the brand has to command a premium price, or secure earnings for the company