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The ranking of the best brands has undergone significant changes

The new ranking of the best British brands has undergone significant changes: Google, firmly established in first place in all such lists, unexpectedly gave first place to one of its main competitors - Microsoft. In addition, the American company did not even get second place: Google supplanted Rolex.

The ranking of the best brands (so-called superbrands) is published in almost every country and every year. But in the UK this list is special: it was in London that Superbrands itself was founded in 1995.

The selection of brands for rating is first carried out by a special council, which studies a large number of sources - from quarterly reports to blogs. After this, a special shortlist is drawn up. Next, Superbrands specialists survey more than 2.1 thousand Britons, from whose opinions the rating is ultimately compiled.

Naturally, the ranking includes not only companies that were founded in the UK or owned by British people. However, they all must have a business in the kingdom - otherwise UK residents will not be familiar with the brand and therefore will not be able to appreciate it.

However, using the Superbrands rating you can almost always judge how successful the brands of certain companies look on a global scale. This time, however, the national characteristics of the British had a strong impact on the ranking, changing it significantly.

Leaders

According to the results of a new report from Superbrands, the American Microsoft took first place in the ranking, displacing Google, which was third.

The presence of “technical” brands at the top of the ratings has not bothered anyone for several years now. Along with Microsoft and Google, Apple also entered the top ten - this company took ninth place. All this is understandable: after all, if consumers use the services of the leaders of the past era - for example, Coca-Cola or McDonald's - once a day, then Microsoft or Google are needed almost every hour. Consequently, consumers get used to them much faster and “stick” more closely.

It's also worth noting that Microsoft has done quite a lot over the past year to put its brand back on top. In particular, the American company launched the Bing search engine and also introduced Internet Explorer 8, which the company itself considers faster and more stable than its competitors. It looks like the British are loving Bing and Internet Explorer 8. True, the latter’s advertising on YouTube was worse than ever , for which it was eventually removed from the company’s official channel.

The second place in the ranking was unexpectedly taken by the watch manufacturer Rolex - last year it was not even in the top ten. It is likely that the crisis has affected this brand: in an economic downturn, the manufacturer of expensive watches begins to enjoy special respect.

The fact that British Airways ended up in fourth place was most likely influenced by the national factor: whatever the results of the airline, thanks to its brand it will always be associated with leadership in the field. For the same reasons, for example, in Russia the positions of the Aeroflot or Sberbank brand have always been strong and will be strong for many years to come.

Another national feature of the ranking is that Encyclopaedia Britannica is in tenth place. Perhaps the results of the encyclopedia were affected by the fact that in mid-2008 received everyone access to editing it. True, you can only edit the oldest and most authoritative universal encyclopedia in the online version, but the ability to supplement the legendary multi-volume set is still impressive.

Not in the first roles

In general, the list of the 500 best brands includes many companies that are familiar to Russian consumers. For example, the British consider Mercedez-Benz to be the best car brand (sixth place) - and hardly anyone in another country can disagree with this. Mercedez-Benz's closest competitor, BMW, ranks only 16th in the ranking.

Monopoly playing field. Illustration from monopoly.com

It is curious that 23rd place in the list was taken by the oil company BP, and 28th by Shell. In Russia, mining companies usually do not have strong brands: they simply do not need them, since their business is almost independent of consumers. Western companies usually pay significant attention to retail, as a result of which their brands become more recognizable.

Beer manufacturer Guinness is in 31st place in the ranking. It's the UK's most popular alcohol brand - Irish people should be happy. The national symbol of the British - Gordon's gin - was in 81st place. It's even worse than Nescafe or Starbucks.

It is curious that the top hundred largest brands also included such interesting companies as Monopoly, the manufacturer of the well-known game "Monopoly" (44th place), as well as the manufacturer of Durex condoms (83rd place). According to the Superbrands rating, the British trust Microsoft almost twice as much as Durex.

Analogues

Over the course of a year, dozens, if not hundreds, of various ratings that are in one way or another related to the ranking of brands are published. The company Superbrands itself, for example, also produces a rating of “cool brands” (Cool Brands) - the last time its winners were Aston Martin, iPhone and Apple, as well as a rating of the best business brands. Google holds the lead here, followed by Rolls-Royce and Sony.

The “best” brand does not mean the most expensive. According to the BrandZ rating, compiled annually by Millward Brown Optimor, even in times of crisis, brands continue to rise in price - the Google trademark, for example, was already valued at one hundred billion dollars by spring, and Microsoft at 76 billion.

The presence of so many ratings and the gradual increase in brand value means that people are still interested in investing in brands. Sometimes it reaches the point of absurdity. Thus, Italian designer Ignacio Pilotto drew attention to the fact that many consumers know brands better than the alphabet. As a result, Pilotto created a branded keyboard with no letters, but instead with logos of famous companies. Each letter corresponds to a brand starting with that letter. It is possible that, given the continued fascination with brands, there will be more and more such design solutions.

Alexander Polivanov [ Report a typo found ]

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