Top 10 Global Brands of 2010

Interbrand recently announced Top 100 Brands of 2010. The results weren’t much surprising. Apart from a few shuffles in top 10, the only entry is HP at position 10 and the exit is Toyota which was at position 8, now at position 11.

Top 10 Brands of 2010

1. CocaCola, is consistently topping the charts with increasing Brand Value of $ 70,452 million in 2010 which was $ 66,000 million last year. Surprisingly, their asset value is approximately one third of Brand Value; enjoying one of the best Brand Equity in the world. The brand promise of fun, freedom, spirit and refreshment – all this, while also maintaining the nostalgia that reinforces customers’ deep connection to the brand. For such a large brand, it operates quickly, flexibly and innovatively, tailoring itself to local markets without tarnishing its legacy. This includes different flavor profiles in each country and shrewd distribution models in fast-developing world markets (for example, carts in India). It has adapted quickly to social media, with 11 million fans on Facebook and 96,385 followers on Twitter as of August 2010. And while its brand may not be perceived as the best corporate citizen, in reality it leads in this area as well, providing US $305 million through the Coca- Cola Foundation. The brand is likely to face challenges as customers grow more health conscious in the coming years, and soda is increasingly taxed in the U.S. However, it is already thinking ahead with aggressive targeting of fast developing markets and programs like Healthy Active Living which address this criticism head-on.

2. IBM made 108 strategic acquisitions over the past nine years to strengthen its portfolio and continue its seamless evolution from hardware to service to knowledge economy to innovation. This year, IBM displayed its innovation through a host of social media initiatives. IBM also leads its category when it comes to corporate citizenship.

3. Very close to IBM is Microsoft, which has spent more time creating defensive products rather than innovating – for example, launches of the Xbox to compete with Sony Playstation, Bing to compete with Google, the quickly abandoned Windows Kin Phone to compete with Apple iPhone, Windows 7 to compete with Linux, and updated other software such as Visual Studio, Microsoft Office and Microsoft DirectX. Still, despite the many rivals close on its tail, Microsoft maintains its position as the number one operating system on the market. This year, it proved it is still capable of innovation with the introduction of its Xbox Kinect, which uses original technology.

4. Google hopped from position 7 to 4 in one year reinforcing its ever growing attitude since inception. Google, labeled with ‘trying to eat up the entire pie’, is becoming big; arrogantly killing small and big enterprises. Recently, it compromised a key value – trust – when it violated 176 million users’ privacy with Google Buzz. And though its effort to pull out of China, which was censoring the search engine, and realign with its message demonstrated its commitment to its promise, only a few months later, it was quietly persuaded to work with the regime again. Still, Google’s reach and record for innovation is undisputed. Expect the brand to continue to diversify and expand, even as it experiences increasing backlash.

5. The General part of GE is becoming bigger than the Electric part and is diversifying aggressively. This year it is GE’s lack of focus as it moves from ecomagination to its healthymagination initiative. While it continues to lead in terms of sustainability, this year the importance of green has decreased. Instead, efficiency has become the new watchword. GE has also been focusing on introducing more new products at more price points.

6. McDonald’s remains globally versatile, approachable, value-driven and reliable in a year when Burger King fell off the table. Already a strong brand with deep roots, the recession reminded people once again of its great value. McDonald’s seized the opportunity to capture a new audience and drive sales even further by upgrading its coffee to make it more premium and introducing healthier menu options – a move that should help it in the long-term. This, along with constant roll outs of new cafe concepts and contemporized environments, put McDonald’s in more consideration sets for more occasions. The brand wins A’s all around for its corporate citizenship efforts, as well as its social media endeavors (particularly “Voice of McDonald’s”).

7. Intel looked for ways to expand the business in two directions: moving beyond the PC and server market, launching chips for everything from mobile phones to smart TVs; and creating ways to help its partners improve their businesses via an app store and the creation of an applications developer program. It has also addressed the issue of security by recently acquiring McAfee.

8. Nokia has been perceived as a company that is committed to enhancing of communications by offering affordable, accessible, functional and creative mobile phone devices and applications. However, while Nokia certainly maintains leadership in global market share of handsets, the brand has fallen behind where the most profitable sectors of the market have developed – most notably, smartphones. Nokia seems to have forgotten the innovation way, making it myopic in characteristics. Nokia has fallen down from 5th position to 8th; and needs to work on products more than Branding.

9. Disney again leveraged its history of quality, family-fun experiences through clean, well-managed parks and kid-oriented movies and merchandise. This year, the youth-oriented brand continued to cultivate a strong social media presence, and announced that it would be re branding its stores to make them more theme-park-like and multisensory. Despite the hits to the amusement park industry due to a decline in tourism, incentives like free tickets for volunteer work as well as a variety of discounts on park admission and hotel stays have kept the parks in demand.

10. HP continues to expand its product portfolio since the acquisition of EDS in 2008 expanded the HP brand into the services category. The highly diversified business with its wide audience reach creates unique challenges. As it evolves into more of a services and software provider, HP needs to show that the innovation it is known for in hardware will be replicated in its newer, less tangible offers. The diversity of its competitors and geographies continues to put pressure on the brand, as it must play to both local and global considerations. The company is working to unify all businesses under one HP brand platform: “Let’s Do Amazing.”

Special Mention: Toyota

11.Toyota which was the number one car manufacturer in 2008, had brand associations (BAs) of leader in dependability, reliability, safety, efficiency, innovation, longevity and sustainability through its pioneering hybrid engines. However, the auto-acceleration problem with the paddle and recall of 8.5 million vehicles affected not only revenues but umbrella Brand Toyota. Series of following events and media making them infamous seemed to contradict everything the brand stands for. Meanwhile, reluctance to acknowledge the problem only made matters worse. While Toyota’s brand architecture (almost exclusive focus on a single corporate brand) was previously one of its greatest advantages, it has since become its biggest strategic problem. Because Toyota uses shared parts and technologies across multiple models, a technical hitch with one car also means problems with others. Still, historically, Toyota has been a resilient brand, and expected to come out of all glitches soon. Toyota needs to work really hard this year, esp in Branding domain to keep selling and remain in top brands.