Gen Y Brands Gain, Financial Brands Lose

Interbrand just published its annual ranking of the 100 best global brands. Here are the top 10 brands on the list:

1. Coca Cola
2. IBM
3. Microsoft
4. GE
5. Nokia
6. Totota
7. Intel
8. McDonald’s
9. Disney
10. Google

Here’s some of the other interesting details from the rankings:

• Google is the only new entry to the top 10; it was 20th last year. Which company dropped out? Mercedes-Benz was 10th last year and is 11th this year.
• The listing also provides the change in value of the brands since last year. Here are the biggest changes in brand value:
  • Top gainers: Google (+43%), Apple (+24%), Amazon (+19%), ZARA (+15%), SAP (+13%), and Nintendo (+13%)
  • Top losers: Merrill Lynch (-21%), Gap (-20%), Morgan Stanley (-16%), Citi (-15%), Ford (-12%), and UBS (-11%).
  • The top gainers are what I call “Gen Y brands,” they came to age during the early adulthood of 20 year-olds, while the losers are dominated by large financial institutions.
• There were 7 new brands on the top 100 list this year: H&M (#22), Blackberry (#73), Ferrari (#93), Giorgio Armani (#94), Marriott (#96), FedEx (#99), and Visa (#100).
• The highest ranked company on last year’s list that did not make this year’s top 100 was Kodak (#82 in 2007).
• For fun, I went back and looked at the top 10 brands from 2001. Here they are:
  1. Coca Cola
  2. Microsoft
  3. IBM
  4. GE
  5. Nokia
  6. Intel
  7. Disney
  8. Ford
  9. McDonald’s
  10. AT&T

The bottom line: Just about everyone recognizes this: