I thought I should point out that no Council member can vote for brands that they work for or that are competitive to them, so the Times journalists could not vote for any media brands for example so your key point is in this instance incorrect.

We also do not look at budget when selecting brands, I do not even know what Budvar’s revenue or advertising budget is and do not have the inclination to find out either. Cool is not discovered through advertising (our research with YouGo proves this) but word of mouth. Yes some of the brands do advertise as brand tend to do and are quite large. Mainstream does not automatically mean uncool (again our research proves this). That said I must say I have never ever seen an ad for many of the brands in the book. Do you recall a major campaign of VV Rouleaux or The Wapping Project or Madame V?

The other thing to point out is that cool is subjective, I don’t think for one minute that everyone will agree with our selection. Not a problem! However robust the selection this will be the case. The point is we are sharing some insights and knowledge into some brands that have performed well versus competitors on the cool stakes…..and by doing so are fueling the debate for consumers and industry people alike to consider.

Finally you cannot submit an entry into the survey, we consider brands on merit and conduct extensive research into the population of brands that could be considered. No brand makes an application.

I hope this helps to clarify but otherwise please do visit our site http://www.superbrands.org

All the best,

Steve Cheliotis
Superbrands

Cheers,
h