Top 100 global brands valued at $55 billion

The global financial turmoil has sent some well-known brands plunging in the 2009 Best Global Brands ranking, while a some managed to hold on to their brand value and some prospered even during a challenging year.

According to Best Global Brands 2009, the BusinessWeek and Interbrand's annual ranking, Coca-Cola managed to retain the No.1 slot as the best global brand for the ninth year in a row, followed by IBM, Microsoft, General Electric and Nokia, whose rankings remained unchanged from last year.

For the first time, the overall value of the top 100 brands declined 4.6 per cent, or $55.472 billion, with seven brands falling right off the list.

Not surprisingly, financial services giants Citi, UBS, American Express and Morgan Stanley are among the companies that have slipped dramatically down the list-in a year when some banks reeling under subprime losses were required to be bailed out by their respective governments.
 
Swiss bank UBS lead the plunge in rankings among banks, falling 31 places to No 72, losing 50 per cent of its brand value to $4.3 billion.
 
Citi was next, falling 17 places to No 36 as its brand value fell 49 per cent to $10.2 billion, followed by American Express, falling 7 places to No 22 with its brand value falling 32 per cent to $14.9 billion and Morgan Stanley fell 15 places to No 57 losing 26 per cent to $6.39 billion.
 
JP Morgan managed to retain its 37th position while insurance behemoth AIG and Merrill Lynch were knocked out of the list after AIG had to be bailed out by the US government and Merrill Lynch was forced to merge with Bank of America to save itself  from total collapse.
 
Amazon, Pepsi, Audi, Panasonic, and Campbell's have all prospered during a challenging year while banks and auto brands fared the worst, while food brands benefited as consumers began eating more at home.
 
Car companies, hit the hardest due to the recession, saw big names like Toyota, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and Porsche, decline in their brand values.
 
The car companies that managed to ride out of the economic storm was Italy's Ferrari and Korean carmaker Hyundai.
 
Food brands, like Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé, Heinz, Pepsi, Kellogg's, Campbell's, and Danone, were the beneficiaries of the global economic meltdown as consumers started to dine out less and began eating at home more.
 
Internet giant, Google rose three spots in the ranking at No 7 with as its brand value rose  25 per cent to $31.9 billion-according to Interbrand, the year's biggest rise.
 
In May, Google was named the number one brand in the fourth annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, by increasing its value from $86 billion last year to $100 billion in 2009, representing a 16 per cent growth. (See: Google named world's most valuable global brand)  

Its search engine rival, Yahoo climbed one spot to be ranked at No 64, although it lost 7 per cent of its brand value to $5.1 billion.
 
Seven brands made the list for the first time this year. Apparel brands Burberry, Polo, and Puma, low-cost food companies Campbell Soup and Burger King, cosmetics maker Lancôme, and the tech firm Adobe Systems, whose Flash player is the de facto video standard on the Web, said BusinessWeek.
 
Interbrand said, ''The recession has presented brand stewards with the most severe test of their careers. Companies have had to adjust rapidly as consumers reexamine their purchases and rethink brand loyalties.''
 
''Marketing executives are balancing the temptation to chase short-term gains with discounts and promotions against the risk of cheapening their brands over the long haul. Meanwhile, most have considerably smaller budgets with which to reach their customers,'' it added.

Interbrand calculates brand value as the net present value of the earnings the brand is expected to generate and secure from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006.

To be considered, the brands must have a minimum brand value of $2.7 billion, generate approximately one-third of their earnings outside of their home country, produce publicly available marketing and financial data, and have a wider public profile beyond their direct customer base.

World's top ten most valuable brands

1. Coca Cola $68.7bn
2. IBM $60.2bn
3. Microsoft $56.6bn
4. GE $47.7bn
5. Nokia $34.8bn
6. McDonald's $32.2bn
7. Google $31.9bn
8. Toyota $31.3bn
9. Intel $30.6bn
10. Disney $28.4bn