Business Week recently published its list of the top 10 brands in the world.
1. Coca-Cola, up 3 percent to $68.73 billion
2. IBM, up 2 percent to $60.21 billion
3. Microsoft, down 4 percent to $56.65 billion
4. GE, down 10 percent to $47.78 billion
5. Nokia, down 3 percent to $34.87 billion
6. McDonald’s, up 4 percent to $32.28 billion
7. Google, up 25 percent to $31.98 billion
8. Toyota, down 8 percent to $31.33 billion
9. Intel, down 2 percent to $30.64 billion
10. Disney, down 3 percent to $28.45 billion
(C) 2008 Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9APGRSG0.htm (The entire issue is devoted to cover the the top 100 brands:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/09_39/B4148magazine.htm)
What do each of these top brands all have in common? They each invest in promoting, crafting, nurturing, and protecting their brands. The golden arches, the Google logo and name, the “Intel Inside” slogan, the Coca-Cola cursive and bottle shape — each of these is unique and creative and each has been carefully crafting to represent the character of the brand and to communicate with customers. In short, each of the brands helps the company create a relationship with its consumers.
Lesson: Is your brand creating a relationship with your audience? A brand doesn’t have to be gigantic to be effective.
