Apple, Google World's Top Brands 319
Anil Kandangath writes "BrandChannel readers have picked the top global brands for 2004. Apple is the leader, closely followed by Google. Arab-centric Al-Jazeera ranks fifth in global as well as Europe/Africa ratings. In regionwise ratings, Google tops North America, Ikea tops Europe/Africa, Sony tops Asia-pacific while Mexican cement brand Cemex tops Latin America An interesting fact is that Steve Jobs headed Apple is the top North American brand while his other venture Pixar comes fifth in the same zeitgeist."
3 out of the top 10 from US and Canada are people (Score:3, Interesting)
Too bad my favorite Big Green Guy [komar.org] didn't make the list! ;-)
Re:3 out of the top 10 from US and Canada are peop (Score:4, Insightful)
Vidal Sassoon
Tommy Hilfiger
Colonel Sanders
Antoine Bugleboy
Lazslo Panaflex
etc.
The list goes on and on.
Re:3 out of the top 10 from US and Canada are peop (Score:4, Funny)
-1% milk, half gallon
-soup base, one pkg.
-onions, 1 lb.
-potatoes, five lb. bag
-sausage, 1 lb.
-eggs, one dozen
-pure, unspeakable evil, 1 pkg.
Re:3 out of the top 10 from US and Canada are peop (Score:4, Funny)
Re:3 out of the top 10 from US and Canada are peop (Score:2)
It must be true (Score:4, Insightful)
because a tiny niche insignificant internet website says so !!
representative? (Score:2)
Only professionals in the advertising bussines were questionned?!
Re:It must be true (Score:5, Funny)
It's not false information just because a tiny niche insignificant internet website said so.
It's false because marketing people said so.
Re:It must be true (Score:2)
Also 'Apple' is number 1 in North America and absent from all the other lists, and still makes it number 1 worldwide. How is that possible?!?!
I call BS! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I call BS! (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact is the three brands you mentioned are all transparent. I have my preferences of Coke vs. Pepsi, McDonalds vs. Burger King etc but they don't have the cult following. We ignore those brands because they are giant and stable, they aren't taking any risks and they plainly don't have the media love that jobs and his babies have.
Re:I call BS! (Score:5, Insightful)
Brands are very difficult thing to build. Apple/Google are currently (rightly so) should be monitored but they haven't built their brands to be recognizable world-wide yet.
For the record, Coke still stands as the #1 most recognizable brand in the world. Best of luck toppling that monstrosity.
Re:I call BS! (Score:2)
Apple, Pixr have recognition and penetration beyond what there sales would indicate. And thats because they are doing different things, getting media love and genuinely are in a position
Re:I call BS! (Score:2, Insightful)
That sounds like a great brand, established to me, then. Apple, Google, etc are simply more "buzzworthy" because they are new(er), growing, and high-tech.
Re:I call BS! (Score:2)
Re:I call BS! (Score:3)
wtf does that mean? (Score:3)
Re:I call BS! (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple has been around 30 years and they aren't recognisable worldwide yet?
None suprised me (Score:4, Insightful)
Then again, I think with the advent of the net, things are changing.
10 years ago, not many of us Americans would know so many European brands, but now that we see ads for european products (even if they aren't available in the US), articles, etc. etc...
it's sometimes hard to remember what is in the US or not.
I'm guessing in another 10 years, that continental divide will close even more.
There should be no surprise (Score:2)
Balderdash!
I think ten years ago plenty of people knew Mercedes-Benz, Saab, BMW, Country Crock, Lipton, Knorr, Dove, Guiness, Michelin, Gucci, Chanel, Doc Marten's, Nestle, Ferrari, Absolut, BP, British Airways, Lufthansa, Ikea, Evian, Cadbury, Adidas, Lacoste, Perrier, Peugeot, Bennetton (what happened to them?), and of
There is a Canadian version of that joke (Score:2)
And it chaps my ass every day.
Coke? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Coke? (Score:2)
Re:Coke? (Score:4, Informative)
Then less than a month after it launched, just when we'd all stopped laughing, they had to withdraw it from sale because of abnormal levels of some toxic chemical or other. It never came back.
Still, I'm sure it'll provide marketing textbook authors with case study material for decades to come.
Re:Coke? (Score:3, Insightful)
That perception is mostly wrong. Dasani may in fact be purified tap water and thus considered less "natural" than spring water, but at least in the U.S. is subject to higher standards of purity than the much less regulated spring water market. In addition I just read a bottled water taste test (in think in a wine-related publication) that ranked Dasani the second best
Re:Coke? (Score:2)
Re:Coke? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not sure what they think they're measuring in this survey, so it's kind of futile. Coke's product offerings are pretty limited. Under the Coca-Cola/Coke brand, they sell cola, reduced-calorie cola, and flavored cola. The company makes any other products, but they don't even call it "Coca-Cola brand lemon-lime soft drink" - they call it "Sprite" with no mention of the Coke brand in the name. Sure lots of people all over the world recognize this made up phrase, but so what? The term is practically ge
Re:Coke? (Score:4, Interesting)
Laughable.
Re:Coke? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Coke? (Score:2)
Re:Coke? (Score:2)
Re:Coke? (Score:2)
Remember, this is a survey of marketing people. People with no money don't really exist in their world view.
RTFA: 12.7% of the world has net access. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Coke? (Score:2, Interesting)
"A total of 1,984 brandchannel readers from 75 countries voted online between November and December 2004."
The keyword is online.
Wrong internet penetration figure (Score:4, Informative)
There are roughly 6 billion people on earth. 1% of that is "only" 60 Million.
You are way off. According to this site (http://www.internetworldstats.com/top25.htm) it is more like 12.7% of the WHOLE population.
Your point isn't void, but at least use some reasonable figures.
Re:Coke? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's off by about factor 10. Sorry for causing any psychological harm by pointing out the insignificance of your nation but look at the bright side. Had you been right the USA would have about 50% of the world population and I don't think the rest of the world could survive that =)
-1, Bad Math (Score:2)
Though I do agree that the 1% figure is pretty much wrong.
"North America" ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"North America" ? (Score:2)
It always has been (Score:3, Informative)
"The northern continent of the Western Hemisphere, extending northward from the Colombia-Panama border and including Central America, Mexico, the islands of the Caribbean Sea, the United States, Canada, the Arctic Archipelago, and Greenland."
Always striving to correct errors of basic geography....
They are both (Score:2)
"We" also consider them to be part of North America. Central America is a sub-region of it. Latin America includes soutbern North America, and all of South America.
From dictionary.com: "The northern continent of the Western Hemisphere, extending northward from the Colombia-Panama border and including Central America, Mexico, the islands of the Caribbean Sea, the United States, Canada, the Arctic Archipelago, and Greenland.
It is
Re:They are both (Score:2)
Nothing like trying to convince someone that yes, Russia really is in asia. I once had to literally point at the kamchatka peninsula on a globe to convince someone this was true. They insisted they were europeans because "the people there are white". It always irks me when people fail to grasp the distinction between ethnicity and geography.
Not surprising. (Score:2)
Steve Jobs (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Steve Jobs (Score:3, Interesting)
Great Folks. Anyone feel like saving me the Googling (speaking of brands) and give a first person account of what's become of them?
~Lake
Re:Steve Jobs (Score:2)
Did you mean: Ihnatko [google.com]
How long does it take you to google? It took me 0.19 seconds.
Zeitgeist (Score:2, Informative)
i love it when people use words thinking they are clever when they dont even understand the meaning of them
Zeitgeist is a German word. Zeit meaning "time" and Geist meaning "ghost," Zeitgeist means the spirit of the age or times
so i the context used in the summary it is a completely inappropriate usage, but as Google use it for their statistics page it must be cool
Starbucks (Off Topic) (Score:5, Funny)
"Wales
641 Castles
5 Starbucks."
Re:Starbucks (Off Topic) (Score:2, Informative)
And the ranking of Slashdot?! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:And the ranking of Slashdot?! (Score:2)
Yeah, but we'd immediately break down into a long, branching discussion tree of just how you define a "top brand".
I noticed that the article didn't exactly make this clear. Most recognized? Best image? Most purchased? Can't tell.
Re:And the ranking of Slashdot?! (Score:2)
Probably the most hated name among non-geek website administrators, who see their monthly transfer limit exceeded within a few seconds, see their hard work crushed under the weight good ol' fashioned slashdotting...
Why?!? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why?!? (Score:2)
Maybe its one of reasons. Also I think Africa market is not so small since there is a huge and rich country named South Africa there. There must be others too.
Sample size (Score:3, Insightful)
Ruger
Re:Sample size (Score:2)
Re:Sample size (Score:3, Informative)
That's because you have wood in Argentina. In Mexico, wood is outrageously expensive. For years the most popular building materials have been brick and cement block. For the last couple decades, though, Cemex has been pushing cast concrete structures. They do more than just make cement. They also provide loans to contractors to buy the casting equipment, ar
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Is Slashdot's an advertising bitch for Apple? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Is Slashdot's an advertising bitch for Apple? (Score:2)
Slashdot reflects the feelings and interests of its "editors" first and its userbase second. Anything you see here may or may not be representative of anything else. If you want to know whose bitch they are, look at the ads
Re:Is Slashdot's an advertising bitch for Apple? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is Slashdot's an advertising bitch for Apple? (Score:2)
You're right about Kevin Rose though, the guy is a doushe. "Look at me, I spent $500 on a case that came with all these Mac part thingies I don't need!" I'm sure the next thing he'll be doing is a Segway destruction derby.
Google or Apple? (Score:3, Interesting)
...
An interesting fact is that Steve Jobs headed Apple is the top North American brand
So which one is it?
pfft, the fruit has a better brand (Score:2)
bogus survey (Score:5, Informative)
This was the "Reader's Choice" award for brandchannel.com. As an online survey, it would be heavily weighted towards technology companies such as Apple and Google.
Brands such as Q-tips, Kleenex, Jell-O, Cheerios, Jiff, the Green Bay Packers, and Tide all probably have higher recognition rates as a percentage of the total (US) population.
Wow, it's a big surprise! (Score:2)
Interesting comparison... (Score:3, Interesting)
Google's search statistics may be regarded as a similar but more accurate poll because of the much bigger sample space.
The problem is that their statistics are biased towards brands/corporations which have a bigger web presence (eg Amazon, etc) which occur in their "Top Consumer Brands" category. Hence companies like Cemex, Samsung etc do not figure in the Google Zeitgeist.
On a related note, SCO seems to be proud [sco.com] it figured in the Google Zeitgeist. The following quote from the "news" on their webpage (couldn't find permanent link):
SCO Ranked #1 Corporate Query Site by Google. Based on billions of searches conducted by Google users around the world, the 2004 Year-End Zeitgeist ranks SCO's corporate Website as the most searched site for the year. Find Out More Here >
Re:Interesting comparison... (Score:2)
I recognise maybe three or four of the names in the categories that list the names of Men and Women; I recognise all of the entries in all of the other categories.
SCO (Score:2)
1. sco
2. johnson & johnson
3. ing
4. ge aircraft engines
5. fleet
I mean, come on, how many people even know what product "ing" sells? Were the "fleet" queries looking for a loan or did they need a laxative? Somehow I just can't imagine a whole bunch of people doing queries for "ge aircraft engines".
Coca Cola (Score:2, Insightful)
BrandChannel is owned by... (Score:2, Informative)
Where the Hell? (Score:2)
Why the hell are Europe and Africa being lumped together? It's not as if they share that much in any cultural way.
Maybe I should RTFA.
How relevant is this poll? (Score:3, Interesting)
Pixar is the fifth-highest rated brand in North America? Come off it. I bet not one person in five could say who they are, let alone what they like about them. Coke, Pepsi, Levis, McDonald's, Sony, Toyota, VW all would have much higher name recognition and positive associations than Pixar not matter how good a company Pixar is (or, for example, how gross a lot of people think Mickey D's burgers are).
Re:How relevant is this poll? (Score:2)
Re:How relevant is this poll? (Score:2)
Not even the Mexicans (Score:2, Insightful)
I doubt that Mexicans are more likely to know Pixar. Their sloppy results left them off of "North America", and Mexico's population is much greater than that of Canada.
movie companies (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, it should be noted that these are marketing people voting. "Coca-cola" is still the 2nd most recognized word worldwide, after "okay", and it certainly belongs above #7 worldwide.
On the other hand, their brand saturation is so complete that they almost don't need to advertise anymore. I'd imagine marketing people prefer things that actually need some marketing to sell, as opposed to Coke, whose commercials serve no purpose anymore except to annoy people at movie theaters (does anyone ever see those commercials and think "oh, maybe that Coke stuff is good, I should try it sometime..."?)
Re:movie companies (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:movie companies (Score:3, Interesting)
Sony? (Score:2)
I'm a bit surprised Sony didn't make it to the list.
Re:Sony? (Score:2)
Not a brand recognition survey (Score:3, Insightful)
Coca-Cola is by far the most recognizable brand in the world. You can go to rural areas in 3rd world countries and ask for a "coca-cola" or even a "coke" and they will know what you are talking about. Ask if they have an "apple" and they will most likely think of the fruit.
Nice profits.... (Score:2, Funny)
Cemex? (Score:2)
Wait a minute... (Score:2)
I'm hoping it was just your writing, and no, I haven't RTFA. I will, and I'm sure doing so will sort things out, but please, let's have *some* modicum of editing.
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:2)
FLAIMBAIT - 1984 votes make a worldwide poll (Score:2)
Who the hell is Brandchannel.com? (Score:5, Informative)
You can see the top 10 list for 2004 here [businessweek.com].
1. Coke
2. Microsoft
3. IBM
4. GE
5. Intel
This popularity contest at brandchannel.com really seems to be ranking cult brands.
Re:Who the hell is Brandchannel.com? (Score:2)
Thank you for posting the scientific survey.
Re:Who the hell is Brandchannel.com? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Who the hell is Brandchannel.com? (Score:2)
Maybe GE gets their bang for buck on their missile systems? Most people tend to prefer the GE brand of missile over the "Crazy Eddie Just-Over-The-NC-Border" missiles, even if they come with a case of free Black Cats and M-80s.
What about companies that 'Do No Evil?' (Score:3, Insightful)
With accounting snafubars and corporate greed in other news, it's satisfying to see such 'Karma-positive' companies be so well-recognized.
Note the survey is for brands with most IMPACT (Score:2)
If you look at the home page, it notes this is a reader survey to determine the brands with the most IMPACT.
Apple and Google are high on this list because what they do affects what a lot of other people do.
IBM and Coke are not because while they are of course more widley known, bit as much is changin because of them. They are solid companies but evoke change by degrees, not in b
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:WFT? (Score:2)
SCO Ranked #1 Corporate Query Site by Google. Based on billions of searches conducted by Google users around the world, the 2004 Year-End Zeitgeist ranks SCO's corporate Website as the most searched site for the year. Find Out More Here >
Following the link to http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html/ [google.com] confirms it.
Re:What a crock (Score:4, Insightful)
The shortlist comprises brands that were highly visible that year. Write in votes carry equal weight to listed brands unless the brand is already listed in the shortlist, in which case we accept up to 10 write ins for one brand.
In other words, they picked the shortlist of brands that you could vote on and the gentle readers got to rubberstamp the choice.
Re:zeitgeist?! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:zeitgeist?! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:4, Interesting)
You might want to consider the sources from which you hear about Al-Jazeera from, before using that information to form an opinion...
Do you think the news you watch would tell you if Al-Jazeera had a report on anything else? No. Only "Al Jazeera does X that we wouldn't, aren't they bad?". Or "Al-Jazeera has X new tape, aren't they bad?"
Maybe they get the tapes from terrorists because:
Re:Bias? (Score:2)