Interbrand and Business Week have just released their latest 100 top brands. The list is full of the usual dinosaurs that even your grand father would have been familiar with. Why do brands like IBM, GE, Intel, Amex, Marlboro warrant such approval when there are far more dynamic brands shaping our world around us (versus screaming from a billboard down on us)?? Like the Superbrands awards, given out in Britain recently to antiquarians like Marks & Spencers, Interbrand and Business Week are sending out a message to big business that creativity, innovation and validity should be spurned and reliance on sheer size, distribution and history is key.
The International Herald Tribune recently wrote, “…increasingly, marketing experts say, companies that think their well-known brands will somehow insulate them in an increasingly competitive world are in for a shock.” However, in an accompanying piece to the 2004 Report, Business Week argues that Cult brands are scaring the established corporations but then they go on to cite Harley Davidson as a classic cult brand. ‘Harley Davidson?’ PSFK cries. Harley Davidson is the Tyrannosaurus Rex of super brands! Like the baby boomers who ride them, Harley Davidson is a bloated monster shrieking loudly and clinging on to the past it once knew them! Time to award brands on their ability to create real and valuable experiences for their customers, we think. Why can’t American Apparel appear in the league, why not Virgin, why not Vonage – dare I say – why not my cell phone company?
Interbrand / Business Week Top 2004 Brands Report (pdf)
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Just thinking that perhaps Interbrand and Business week are not the most subjective companies to be completing brand ratings, after all when IBM and AMEX want to launch a new product who do they go to? How many brands in the top 100 are on interbrands client list, I wonder?
http://www.interbrand.com/portfolio.asp
Bet 1/2 the top 50 are major Business Week advertisers too.
July 29th, 2004 at 8:20 pm
Sorry, had to comment again, this article really has me thinking.
What do Intel do anyway? They make a chip inside a PC, do I know what that chip does – do you?
GE is a massive company which owns many products in many different sectors. Would I say this is a super brand, not at all, don’t see it on my super market shelf, they don’t send me mailshots if they affect my life (And I’m sure they do) they do it under a different brand. So a brand which does not communicate anything, should this even be in the top 1000, just becuase they have done a good job of getting their initials GE out there does not mean that its a good brand, just a big advertising budget.
IBM, Where are they now. The brand means nothing now, they lost most of the office battles first to Novel then Microsoft, what relevence do they have to todays IT managers? I don’t know but I suspect that they are just hanging on in there with their support of old systems.
Marlboro = Death
That leaves AMEX – Nice job on the Black card party which Alexander McQueen styled the other day but I ask you, how is the brand relevent when so many of its competitors have caught it up? Most shops in London don’t accept it because they charge too high a percentage on transactions and the buzz (which they probably created (which would be a really really good piece of marketing if they did)) is that even the celebs just want green cards rather than the costly gold and black ones.
In all if you’re going to judge who has the best brands there has to be substance and relevance behind the judgement.
Not just that people can say, ‘oh….I’ve heard of them or yeah….a few years ago I had one of them.’
Nuff said.
July 29th, 2004 at 8:34 pm
Interesting article on Forcing Brands into Early Retirement on Branc Channel:
http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?fa_id=222
August 5th, 2004 at 6:15 pm
Maybe tattoos are really the only way to show a connection between brands and lifetime loyalty…
Revenge Of The Tattooed Nerds Article (and Pics)
http://www.bmezine.com/news/pubring/20040720.html
August 5th, 2004 at 6:26 pm
Advertising Space Needed.
PSFK is offering £20.00 and a £5.00 a year for life advertising fee for the first person to agree to have PSFK’s logo tattooed on their body. The tattoo has to be in a place where it is on permanent display.
If this is going to start a trend you can be sure we’ll try to get in on the ground floor.
August 5th, 2004 at 6:34 pm