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...Global
A strong global brand is a powerful weapon. These days, however, it may also be an
indispensable one, even as the economy challenges our faith in brands to deliver a profit.
According to Interbrand’s “World’s Most Valuable Brands 2000” study, for example, although
Amazon’s share price has declined, its brand value has increased by 233%. On the other
hand, international power player Coca-Cola, although still the world’s #1 brand, saw its value
drop by 13%. And technology brands did quite well— Microsoft, IBM, Intel, and Nokia placed
second through fifth—not at all foreshadowing the precipitous crash in their stock prices about
half a year after the study findings were released. Overall, notes marketing writer Jane
Bainbridge in Marketing [20 July 2000], Interbrand’s second annual study of this kind reveals
not only that global brands are “stable assets,” but also that “the most valuable brands are
global.” In fact, she argues, “to have a billion-dollar brand, a company has to be global.”
II. Branding As The New “Universal Language”
Based on a recent survey of more than forty-five thousand people across nineteen countries,
Young & Rubicam makes a rather startling claim. In its newest Brand Asset Valuator report,
issued in March 2001, the firm asserts that brands have taken on a godlike status: consumers
find greater meaning in them and the values they espouse than in religion. As Conor Dignam
reports in Ad Age Global [12 March 2001], the study claims that superbrands like Calvin Klein,
Gatorade, IKEA, Microsoft, MTV, Nike, Virgin, Sony PlayStation, and Yahoo! can therefore
also be called “belief brands.” Although Dignam argues against the idea that consumers would
treat brands as gods (because they will not be dictated to by...
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