The UK’s CoolBrands are chosen by the Expert Council and members of the British public. Brands do not apply or pay to be considered. The entire selection process is independently administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis.

A comprehensive database of the UK’s coolest brands is compiled using a wide range of sources, from sector reports to blogs. From the thousands of brands initially identified, approximately 1,500 brands are short-listed. An independent and voluntary Expert Council scores this list, with members individually awarding each brand a rating.

The lowest-scoring brands (approximately 40%) are eliminated. A nationally-representative group of more than 2,100 UK consumers on the YouGov panel are asked to vote on the surviving brands. The opinions of the Expert Council (70 per cent) and the British public (30 per cent) are combined and the 500 highest-ranking brands are awarded ‘CoolBrand’ status.

Cool is subjective and personal. Accordingly, voters are not given a definition but are asked to bear in mind the following factors, which research has shown are inherent in a CoolBrand: style, innovation, originality, authenticity, desirability, uniqueness.

First place this year is taken by iconic car marque Aston Martin which has once again pipped computer giant Apple to the top spot for a second year running.

The survey found that women were just as impressed with technology brands as men, with 47% voting Apple their most popular tech brand while 44% voted for BlackBerry (who would have thought BlackBerry is still top-10-cool, considering the late downturn in terms of market share)

The only cool cultural venue in the top 20 was London’s Tate Modern gallery (19).

Interesting enough is the fact that technology is placed second as a category in the top 20 with 5 brands, just behind (sigh) Fashion with six, and ahead of automotive with 4.

But let’s see the final top:

1. Aston Martin
2. Apple
3. Harley-Davidson
4. Rolex
5. Bang & Olufsen
6. BlackBerry
7. Google
8. Ferrari
9. Nike
10. YouTube
11. Alexander McQueen
12. Dom Perignon
13. PlayStation
14. Ray-Ban
15. Chanel
16. Nintendo
17. Vivienne Westwood
18. Agent Provocateur
19. Tate Modern
20. Maserati

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Brand Finance’s league tables provide a point in time valuation of leading global, sector and regional brands enabling clients to track their brands’ performance on an annual basis.

A brand valuation provides an objective framework within which crucial decisions around marketing and branding strategy can be made objectively and with a high degree of financial rigor. Subsequently, investment decisions can be made in the context of their impact on business value in order to understand more accurately the return on marketing investment.

Here are the top 10:

1. Wal-Mart (-) – 41,365$M
2. Google (+3) – 36,191$M
3.  Coca Cola (-1) – 34,844$M
4.  IBM (-1) – 33,706$M
5. Microsoft (-1) – 33,604$M
6. GE (-) – 31,909$M
7. Vodafone (+1) – 28,995$M
8. HSBC (-1) – 28,472$M
9. HP (-) – 27,383$M
10. Toyota (-) – 27,319$M

Full top here

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It’s not the firs nor the last of big brands that seems to think that their slumping sales will recover by slight changes in their branding. I’m not sure that this is the right answer or just an effort in the wrong direction at not the right time.

It took the designers five months to finalize the (new?) iconic logo. Five months and $1 million dollars for the design.

The purpose of the rebranding? “Making the logo more dynamic and more alive … [it is] absolutely a huge step in the right direction” said Frank Cooper, Pepsi’s VP-portfolio brands

So far, branding experts are in both camps. “It’s tilting the whole brand presentation from a classic expression of uniqueness and quality into something that is much more humorous, almost flippant,” said Tony Spaeth, an identity consultant. “It worries me that it is less durable, less permanent and classic. It comes across as more of a campaign idea than an enduring brand expression.” 

The new logo is Pepsi’s 11th in its 110-year history. Five logos have been introduced in the past 21 years, with the last update in 2002. 

Pepsi Logo

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The Top 10 UK brands according to the public looks like this:

1. Microsoft
2. Coca-Cola
3. Google
4. BBC
5. BP
6. British Airways
7. LEGO
8. Guinness
9. Mercedes-Benz
10. Cadbury

Is interesting that the parallel study with media and marketing experts on the independent Superbrands Council disagreed with the public, placing Google in the number one slot. Innovative brand Apple, its sub-brand iPod, car icon Mini and online auctioneers eBay completed the experts’ top five. Only three brands made both top tens, namely Google, the BBC and Coca-Cola. Here is the Expert’s Top 10:

1. Google
2. Apple
3. iPod
4. Mini
5. eBay
6. BBC
7. Coca-Cola
8. Red Bull
9. Tesco
10. Waitrose

More infos on Superbrands UK website

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With toursim as the world’s second largest industry, and countries spending more to promote themselves, their product and their assets, FutureBrand feels it is time to look at countries in a whole new way – as brands. Since I presented here the 2005 Country Brand Index, is time now the 2006 Top 10 (number in brackets are representing last year standings):

1. Australia (2)
2. USA (3)
3. Italy (1)
4. France (4)
5. Greece (6)
6. UK (-)
7. Spain (-)
8. New Zealand (-)
9. Maldives (5)
10. India (-)

Here are some excerpts from the FutureBrand report:

While the concept of countries as brand is becoming more accepted, the category continues to be dominated by generic marketing; true adoption of brand as a critical country assett ontinues to be underdeveloped. This study focuses on the tourism component of country brands, since it is currently the most visible and marketed manifestation of a country.

However, the Index also acknowledges other significant areas of country brand opportunities (for instance, investments and exports), and strongly encourages countries to view their brand holistically, rather than in discrete government silos.

While Tourism is often the most consciously marketed aspect of a country, it is only one of many country offerings. It is clear that the image, reputation and brand value of a country impacts the perception of its products, population, investment opportunities and even foreign aid or funding. A country brand at the highest level is much more than a logo or slogan, it is a unifying and identifiable platform that is manifested in the country experience, communicated by officials and citizens and delivered through different government and private agencies. The idea of a country brand is not merely a marketing wrapper, but a value proposition that changes perception and preference, drives usage and increases the economic interests of the country.

You can read the full report here.

Related or not with dropping from the 1st to the 3rd place, Italy now has a new logo and slogan to promote the country as a brand in areas like tourism.

The logo and slogan were presented Wednesday to the press by Premier Romano Prodi and Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli, who oversaw the tender for the initiative The presentation preceded by a day the one for a new Italia.it portal, which will be illustrated at the BIT international tourism trade fair in Milan.

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2006 was the first year when Google was included in the Millward Brown classification since 1998. The world’s most popular search engine has risen to the first place in the Great Britain top of brands; the position Google occupied comes counter to the connection Millward Brown usually set between the brands’ advertising expenses and the position in the top. Most of the EUR 2 million Google allocated to advertising last year went to online advertising, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

The second place in the top went to Microsoft, with EUR 59.6 million advertising budget; the next places went to McDonald’s (EUR 48.6 million), Nokia (EUR 26 million, the former first place in 2005) and Tesco. The remaining positions in the top ten went to Coca-Cola, Colgate, Nescaf�, Ford and Vodafone.

Millward Brown considers the brands with a potential for growth one should keep an eye on are Marks & Spencer and the Apple iPod, alongside Google, 3, Asda, Red Bull, O2, MySpace, Virgin Mobile and Starbucks. Despite the negative publicity brands such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola were affected by in 2006, as a result of debates over obesity among children, both companies managed nevertheless to rank high in the top.

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The rankings were compiled from more than 2,000 interviews carried out by a New York design agency, Landor Associates. Its managing director, Allen Adamson, said inclusivity was a critical factor for the year’s successes.

“One thing they’ve all got in common is that they appeal to multiple segments,” he said. “Google’s become the starting point for the internet experience of almost everyone – be it the chief executive or the head [lavatory] man. At Vegas, you’ve got families with kids sitting next to people who are there to escape from their families.”

Landor’s broad definition of brands extends to places or celebrities – and the biggest losers were over-exposed partygoers such as Nicole Richie, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, all of whom are seen to have lost their way.

Did I mention that the 4th position is owned by Google too?

Here is the 2006 top 10:

1. Google
2. Las Vegas
3. iPod
4. YouTube
5. eBay
6. Yahoo!
7. Target
8. Oprah Winfrey
9. Sony
10. NFL

Read more here.

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The purpose: to highlight to senior executives the importance of paying close attention to their brand’s performance in the online arena.

The method: ranking is based on the number of times the brand’s name appears in leading search engines like Google, Baidu and Technorati, the number of links to the brands website, its reach and Page-rank relevance, and the number of times people express their “love” or “hate” for the brand.

The Top 10 (Interbrand/BusinessWeek position in brackets):

1. Google (38)
2. eBay (55)
3. Apple (41)
4. Amazon.com (68)
5. Disney (7)
6. Yahoo! (58)
7. Microsoft (2)
8. Canon (35)
9. Nokia (6)
10. Sony (28)

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The study identifies the ten brands in the United States that have made the greatest percentage gains in business value as a result of superb brand strategy and execution over the three-year period, from 2002-2005:

• Consumer Electronics – iPod
• Major Appliances – Viking
• Athletic Shoes – Converse
• Cough & Cold – Robitussin
• Electronic Retail – Best Buy
• Department Stores – Kohl’s
• Condiments – French’s
• Insurance – Geico
• Personal Care – Dove
• Online Auction – eBay

It is worth mentioning that [tag]iPod[/tag] is the only brand that still stands on the Breakaway list from last year publication, also presented here on brandxpress.

Landor’s strategic experts conducted additional analysis of the ten brands and found that each enhanced their dialogue with customers by embracing one or more of the following trends:

Building on a foundation of trust

This year’s brands earned their customers’ confidence by living up to their promises; in turn, their customers trusted and followed the brands as they diversified and moved into new spaces.

Cultivating brand communities

Leadership brands capitalize on the basic need for human connection by allowing enthusiastic customers to borrow the brand image to express a collective voice: the voice of a brand community.

Empowering customers with knowledge

The ten brands in this year’s list are arming their customers with information; by proactively educating customers, a brand can better manage its image and get valuable feedback in return.

Five brands to watch are also featured in the study. Curves (health clubs), Tampico (fruit drinks), Blue from American Express (credit cards), Cole Haan (shoes) and Hennessey (spirits) showed the greatest gains in brand strength in the last year.

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Image hosting site ImageShack ranked No. 4 among July’s fastest growing Web brands, increasing 233 percent, from a unique audience of 2.3 million to 7.7 million (see Table 1). Heavy.com, a video sharing site, took the No. 5 spot, increasing 213 percent, from 965,000 to 3.0 million unique visitors. Photo sharing site Flickr followed at No. 6, growing 201 percent from 2.1 million to 6.3 million unique visitors. Other user-generated content sites that made it into the top 10 fastest growing Web brands were MySpace, with a 183 percent year-over-year increase, and Wikipedia, with a 181 percent year- over-year increase.

“User-generated content sites have seen significant growth over the past year, owing in large part to their reliance on viral marketing. They also benefit from their cost-effectiveness — the content is practically free.”

said Jon Gibs, director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings.

Brand % Growth
——————————————————————–
HSBC                   394%
——————————————————————–
Sonic Solutions     241%
——————————————————————–
Associated Press   234%
——————————————————————–
ImageShack          233%
——————————————————————–
Heavy.com            213%
——————————————————————–
Flickr                    201%
——————————————————————–
ARTIST Direct       185%
——————————————————————–
Partypoker.com     184%
——————————————————————–
MySpace                183%
——————————————————————–
Wikipedia               181%
——————————————————————–

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