Here at the Canadian Trade-mark Blog, our first-ever post focused on Interbrand’s 2006 Best Global Brands Survey. As we’ve tracked the survey over the years, we’ve noted several constants – like COCA-COLA’s stranglehold on the number one spot, the predominance of US-brands in the top 10, and the sparse number of Canadian brands from the top 100.
The 2008 Best Global Brands survey was released last week, and little has changed: COCA-COLA took the top spot again and US-brands continue to dominate the top 10. However, we’re pleased to report that the list now features twice as many Canadian brands as last year.
At number 44 is THOMSON REUTERS – formerly The Thomson Corporation – who engaged in extensive advertising of its new brand following its merger with Reuters Group earlier this year.
Canada’s new addition? Charging in at number 73 is… …Research In Motion’s BLACKBERRY brand – a brand that we expected to see on this list some time ago. (While we’re speculating, it is likely that BLACKBERRY would have joined the party sooner, but for failure to meet Interbrand’s eligibility criteria, which include the need to have more than 1/3 of revenue originating from outside the brand’s home country.)
Review of the top 10 locates a couple of other notable changes: MICROSOFT drops from two to three (the VISTA effect?) with IBM taking over at the number two position; also GOOGLE surges from number 20 into the top 10 at number 10, buoyed by 43% increase in brand value over last year.
Other notables? H&M made its debut at number 22; APPLE rode the IPHONE up 11 spots to number 24; HSBC came in at number 27 and AMAZON jumped four spots to number 58.
New entries on the list include FERRARI at number 93, GIORGIO ARMANI at number 94, MARRIOTT at number 96, FEDEX at number 99 and VISA at 100, in addition to H&M and BLACKBERRY, discussed earlier.
The big losers? Financial services companies. Brands like CITI, MERRILL LYNCH, JP MORGAN, GOLDMAN SACHS, UBS, MORGAN STANLEY and AIG all lost ground over last year – and in the midst of this market correction, it’s a safe bet that these brands will continue to lose value over the next year.
