The 2005 rankings rewarded companies that focus ruthlessly on every detail of their brands, honing simple, cohesive identities that are consistent in every product, every market around the world, and every contact with consumers. Those that lost the most ground include Sony, Morgan Stanley, Volkswagen, and Hewlett-Packard.
These days, ad-zapping consumers with TiVo, satellite radio, and pop-up ad blockers pose an enormous challenge to marketers trying to build new brands and nurture old ones. The brands that rose to the top of this year's ranking all had widely varied arsenals and were able to unleash different campaigns for different consumers in different media almost simultaneously. They wove messages over multiple media channels and blurred the lines between advertising and entertainment.
Perhaps the best example of brand building in this age of media fragmentation is Korean electronics maker Samsung. Over the past five years, No.20 Samsung has posted the biggest gain in value of any Global 100 brand, with a 186% surge. Samsung surpassed No.28 Sony in this year's ranking, a far more entrenched rival that once owned the electronics category.
New to the Best Global Brands ranking in 2005 were: UPS (#32), Google (#38), Novartis (# 43), Hyundai (#84), Zara (#77), Bulgari (#94), and LG (#97).
The top 5 climbers: eBay (#55 at 21%), HSBC (#29 at 20%), Samsung (#20 at 19%), Apple (#41 at 16%) and UBS (#44 at 16%)
The top 5 decliners: Sony (#28 at -16%), Morgan Stanley (#33 at -15%), Volkswagen (#56 at -12%), Levi's (#96 at -11%) and Hewlett-Packard (#13 at -10%)
In the alcohol category, Budweiser (#26) is still the industry's most valuable brand by far, as it responds to health conscious trend and becomes the beer of football in Europe and Asia. Hennessy (#86), Smirnoff (#88), and Moet & Chandon (#92) each gain in brand value but move down in the rankings. Heineken (#100) was the only leading alcohol brand to decline in value, slipping one spot after a nine spot drop last year.
Strong distribution and a universal brand saw Coca-Cola (#1) once again take the cake as the World's Most Valuable Brand. All three leading beverage brands are among the top 25 Best Global Brands. Both Pepsi (#23) and Nescafe (#24) both gain 3% in brand value but drop down one place each.
The entire 100 Top Global Brands is available at www.businessweek.com and on newsstands.
Brand values were determined using the method Interbrand pioneered 17 years ago and has since used to value more than 3 500 brands. Value is calculated as the net present value of the earnings that the brand is expected to generate and secure in the future for the time frame from July 1 2004 to June 30 2005. In order to be included in the top global brands list, a brand had to be valued at greater than US$2.1 billion. They were selected according to two criteria: First, the brands had to be global, generating significant earnings in the main global markets. Second, there had to be sufficient marketing and financial data publicly available for preparing a reasonable valuation.
