It’s all in a name

A-list entry: A savvy US customer connects with the world’s top brand

Brands make business cool, and if you think that doesn’t matter, check out the Forbes.com list of the world’s most valuable. As well as the usual technology suspects (Apple tops the list; Microsoft is second; IBM and Google fourth and fifth) the top 10 includes convenience food and drink giants and big tobacco.

Toyota, perhaps the year’s most beleaguered brand (after Tiger Woods), still comes in at number 11 despite its numerous car recalls.

A cool brand is not just a sexy veneer – it’s a suit of armour that can shield a company from mistakes, disastrous publicity or even a toxic product. Marlboro’s United States market share has grown from 34 per cent to 43 per cent since 1998, when four big tobacco companies agreed to restrict tobacco marketing, Kurt Badenhausen notes on Forbes.com. That’s more than the next 12 cigarette brands combined – thanks to a strategy of marketing directly to smokers and in places where they gather.

In a year when global economies contracted, Forbes reports that the brands listed below (with their value) outperformed, with earnings steady. contacted Gina cannot confirm this list on Forbes.com

1. Apple: $US57.4 billion ($63.7 billion)

2. Microsoft: $US56.6 billion

3. Coca-Cola: $US55.4 billion

4. IBM: $US43 billion

5. Google: $US39.7 billion

6. McDonald’s: $US35.9 billion

7. General Electric: $US33.7 billion

8. Marlboro: $US29.1 billion

9. Intel: $US28.6 billion

10. Nokia: $US27.4 billion

BRW

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