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Apple, Google World's Top Brands

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-wish-i-had-a-q-rating dept.

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."

27 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. It must be true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful


    because a tiny niche insignificant internet website says so !!

    1. Re:It must be true by nomadic · · Score: 5, Funny

      because a tiny niche insignificant internet website says so !!

      It's not false information just because a tiny niche insignificant internet website said so.

      It's false because marketing people said so.

  2. I call BS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds...whatever

    1. Re:I call BS! by l4m3z0r · · Score: 4, Insightful
      While Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, Walmart etc. are all bigger companies they don't have the same visibility in the media as Apple, Pixr, Al-Jazeera etc. No one is hyping it up about some new coke product, I didn't hear about any keynot speechs from the McDonalds CEO unveiling the latest burger trends. And pepsi didn't introduce some new product recently that dominated some new part of the market they previously weren't represented in.

      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.

    2. Re:I call BS! by furball · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You need to think a little more clearly on this. They have visibility but if I drop you in the middle of Africa with a 12-pack of Coke and Google T-shirt guess which brand the natives are going to recognize?

      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.

  3. None suprised me by digitalgimpus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can't say 1 of them shocked me.

    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.

  4. Coke? by YouHaveSnail · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Amazing that Apple and Pixar both beat Coca-Cola! I'm a big fan of both, but it's hard to imagine that Coke doesn't have a larger following worldwide.

    1. Re:Coke? by gowen · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Right. And its pretty funny/idiotic to suggest that in a world where global internet connectivity is about 1%, that Google is one of the top brands.

      Laughable.

      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    2. Re:Coke? by Bertie · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, it was more the fact that they were trying to pass off tap water with additives as a premium product. They completely misjudged the market, which is driven by the perception that bottled water is purer and more natural and better for you. They seemed to think that people just wanted it to taste nice, and that the way to make it taste the way they wanted was to mass-produce it with minerals added in artificially to keep the taste consistent. I've never seen such embarrassingly negative launch publicity for anything, and I'm counting the Segway in that.

      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.

  5. "North America" ? by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It appears that their North America ratings leave out a large number of countries from Mexico south to the Colombian border which are also part of North America.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  6. Steve Jobs by pHatidic · · Score: 4, Informative

    Steve Jobs strength is that he makes good decisions. However a lot of Apple's loyalty can be attributed to Guy Kawasaki, who is credited with creating the image that attracts crazed fanboys. /crazed fanboy

  7. Starbucks (Off Topic) by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Seeing Starbucks in there reminded me of a great ad I saw in Sunday's paper. Wales is now advertising itself as a tourist destination based on its historical heritage, and the fact it's still relatively unspoiled by the various global brands that homogenise most city centres in England. The advert is a double page photo of the inside of Cardiff Castle with the slogan

    "Wales :
    641 Castles
    5 Starbucks."

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  8. Re:3 out of the top 10 from US and Canada are peop by k4_pacific · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, they are brands. Martha Stewart Living? Her name is the brand. There's of people who've turned their names into brands:

    Vidal Sassoon
    Tommy Hilfiger
    Colonel Sanders
    Antoine Bugleboy
    Lazslo Panaflex
    etc.

    The list goes on and on.

    --
    Unknown host pong.
  9. Sample size by Ruger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wow! A whopping 1984 respondents worldwide, of which the US& Canada make up about 50%. Seems a bit skewed to me.

    Ruger

  10. Is Slashdot's an advertising bitch for Apple? by Phiu-x · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At any given time since a couple of weeks there's a front story about Apple. Now the Apple Mini and IShuffle were news. But now this one and yesterday it was about a loser who crammed pc parts in the Mac Mini. Is Apple's the new google?

    --
    This is a stolen sig.
    1. Re:Is Slashdot's an advertising bitch for Apple? by OmniVector · · Score: 3, Insightful

      in some ways, sure. apple's done a lot to change their image not only for street cred (iPod) but geek cred too (BSD in OS X). google changed the way we use search engines -- such a simple webpage can find so much. apple's changing the way we think about technology now more than ever with the digital lifestyle of iLife + iPod + iMac.

      --
      - tristan
  11. Google or Apple? by NicolaiBSD · · Score: 3, Interesting
    In regionwise ratings, Google tops North America
    ...
    An interesting fact is that Steve Jobs headed Apple is the top North American brand

    So which one is it?

  12. Re:What a crock by khallow · · Score: 3, Insightful
    From the article:

    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.

  13. bogus survey by theMerovingian · · Score: 4, 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.

    --
    "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
  14. Re:zeitgeist?! by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Zeitgeist means "Spirit of the time/age" (in German). Sadly, I don't know what "cockbarrel" means, and some how I think I don't want to know, either.

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  15. movie companies by geoffspear · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I found it interesting that in the full results, Pixar came in #5 while releasing just 1 movie for the year, while Dreamworks released 4 and came in #40, while Disney managed #37.

    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..."?)

    --
    Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
  16. Re:Mixed feelings by rdc_uk · · Score: 3, Interesting
    "All I ever hear about Al Jazeera is how they always seem to have new tapes from various terrorists..."

    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:
    • They will actually transmit them
    • They transmit in the relevant languages, to audiences that speak the relevant languages
    • Their offices are conveniently placed
    • The tape won't go straight to the CIA.
  17. Who the hell is Brandchannel.com? by burnsy · · Score: 4, Informative
    The traditional and respected ranking of global brands come from Business Week.

    You can see the top 10 list for 2004 here.

    1. Coke
    2. Microsoft
    3. IBM
    4. GE
    5. Intel

    This popularity contest at brandchannel.com really seems to be ranking cult brands.

  18. Wrong internet penetration figure by OlivierB · · Score: 3, Informative

    Get your facts straight.
    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.

    --
    Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
  19. What about companies that 'Do No Evil?' by applecore · · Score: 3, Insightful
    It's Google's mantra, and Apple is well-known for its happy-fun simplicity. Even /. lets us keep track of the do-gooders.

    With accounting snafubars and corporate greed in other news, it's satisfying to see such 'Karma-positive' companies be so well-recognized.

    --
    Test signature: Brett Walker
  20. Re:3 out of the top 10 from US and Canada are peop by flyingsquid · · Score: 3, Funny
    Stephen King comes to mind as a human brand. I'm sure he could publish his grocery list and it would sell:

    -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.

  21. Re:3 out of the top 10 from US and Canada are peop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, at least most people avoid naming their companies after their private appendage like Bill Gates did.