Coca-Cola Loses World's 'Most Valuable' Brand Status — To a Fruit

Apple overtakes Coca-Cola to become world's 'most valuable' brand

Coca-Cola has been displaced as the world's "most valuable" brand for the first time, with Apple taking the top spot in Interbrand's annual countdown of the top 100 global brands.

Coke has topped the Best Global Brands ranking each since its creation 13-years ago, but slips to number three behind iPhone-maker Apple and search giant Google, which jumps to number two in the table.

In 2000, Apple ranked at number 36 in the Best Global Brands with a brand value of $6.6bn. Today, despite recent criticism of its iPhone 5c launch, its brand value is $98.3bn.

Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s global chief executive officer, said: "Every so often, a company changes our lives—not just with its products, but with its ethos. This is why, following Coca-Cola’s 13-year run at the top of Best Global Brands, Apple now ranks number one."

"Tim Cook has assembled a solid leadership team and has kept Steve Jobs’ vision intact – a vision that has allowed Apple to deliver on its promise of innovation time and time again."

New entrants in the list include broadcaster Discovery (at number 70), Procter & Gamble-owned battery brand Diracell (85) and General Motors-owned automotive marque Chevrolet.

Technology brands enjoyed the biggest growth in brand value, with Google (second) up 34% year on year, Amazon (19) up 27%, and Facebook (52) up 43% on its 2012 value.

Apple was also recently crowned as the world’s most "cool" brand, confirming the firm’s enduring appeal despite its recent troubles. 

2013	2012	Brand	2013 brand value (USD $billion)	% change in brand value
1	2	Apple	98.316	28%
2	4	Google	93.291	34%
3	1	Coca-Cola	79.213	2%
4	3	IBM	78.808	4%
5	5	Microsoft	59.546	3%
6	6	GE	46.947	7%
7	7	McDonald\'s	41.992	5%
8	9	Samsung	39.610	20%
9	8	Intel	37.257	-5%
10	10	Toyota	35.346	17%
11	11	Mercedes-Benz	31.904	6%
12	12	BMW	31.839	10%
13	14	Cisco	29.053	7%
14	13	Disney	28.147	3%
15	15	HP	25.843	-1%
16	16	Gillette	25.105	1%
17	17	Louis Viutton	24.893	6%
18	18	Oracle	24.088	9%
19	20	Amazon	23.620	27%
20	21	Honda	18.490	7%

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk

By Alex Brownsell, marketingmagazine.co.uk, 30 September 2013, 09:00AM for Brand Republic - Original article can be found here:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1213973/apple-overtakes-coca-cola-become-worlds-most-valuable-brand/

New hires: Who’s on the move in June 2013? PepsiCo, ConAgra, Hershey, Hillshire Brands, Pinnacle Foods, Coca-Cola, GOED

Checkout who is moving on up and onward in the US Food Industry in June 2013!

The people over at Food Navigator - USA have put together a little Food CPG Movers and Shakers Slideshow to showcase the new hires for the companies who are making moves this month; Check it out here at FoodNavigator.com

Maker's Mark's Plain Dumb Move Proved To Be Pure Marketing Genius

Maker's Mark's Plain Dumb Move Proved To Be Pure Marketing Genius

(Article authored by Avi Dan, Contributor for Forbes Magazine and can be found here) 

Sex sells, and so does panic, apparently.

Sales of Maker’s Mark bourbon, known for its distinctive red wax seal, soared 44 percent in the first quarter, its best ever, after the distillery announced in mid-February that it plans to water down its own product and lower the proof due to shortage of raw materials. That led to a revolt among loyal customers, but whereas people usually boycott a product when they are not happy,

The firestorm that the announcement caused led Maker’s to sober up. As thousands took to social-media to complain about the change to Maker’s, the company reversed the decision a week after the news broke.

“You spoke. We listened. And we’re sincerely sorry we let you down,” the distiller wrote on its Facebook FB -1.63% page Feb. 17. Nearly 28,000 people clicked a “like”, praising the decision.

Companies of course tend to crow about product reformulations, but that is often the case when they improve the formulation, not diminish it.  However, when it comes to marketing, scare tactics seem to work. The public relations fiasco turned out to be a boon for Maker’s Mark, offsetting some decline in parent Jim Beam BEAM -1.18%’s other spirits.

Beam isn’t the first company to face a backlash when tinkering with a beloved product. In 1985, devotees of Coke were enraged when Coca-Cola KO -0.71% Co. introduced a reformulated beverage called New Coke. Less than three months after what some called “the biggest marketing fiasco ever”, Coke went back to its original formula, rechristened “Coca-Cola Classic”, marketed side by side with New Coke.

In a bit of spin, Coca-Cola eventually claimed that both formulas actually increased their share of the cola market, and some conspiracy theorists even insinuated that this was actually a brilliant, secret strategy intended to regain loyalty of Coca Cola drinks that have been switching to Pepsi.

Is it possible that Maker’s blunder was premeditated?

That would have been pretty dumb. For starters, it would have been too risky, bordering on a death wish.  No one could have predicted that their customers would rush out and hoard on the bourbon. And in the age of social media it was entirely predictable that customers would revolt vociferously.

So therefore, the company might have been brazen enough or foolish enough to actually consider cheapening their product as a viable business strategy, but I don’t believe that the announcement about watering down the bourbon was premeditated, just dumb.

In some ways Maker’s learned what many companies have to grapple with today: they really don’t own their brands anymore, the customer does. They just rent them.

Avi Dan is the founder of Avidan Strategies, a marketing consulting firm that specializes in business and marketing advice, agency search, compensation, and advertising strategy. He spent 30 years in senior management and board positions with leading global agencies.