There are many reports that contribute to the welfare of many top brands. FutureBrand just published their annual report depicting the “Future Brand” top 100. Their methodology is based on the fundamental premise that brand perception of a company matters more than the financial perspective. I can’t disagree with that premise.
As they spell out, Future Brand’s report is also based on quantitative and qualitative research. These types of research methodologies are very insightful, but I wish they had also integrated a clear definition of what type of qualitative research was done in order to completely understand the relevance. This would help to ratify any loose ends and help to gather better insight into their report. However, the report provided appears to be very sound with a great deal of information.
Arguably, it is virtually impossible to predict the future. And, while the report does a great job of creating a good snapshot of where the top 100 companies are in the minds of the public, no one can predict the unfortunate public relations tragedies that some large corporations have endured such as Enron. There are not many surprises that ranked in the top five such as Google being in first place, Microsoft in second, Walt Disney Company in third, Apple in fourth, and Samsung in Fifth. There are some interesting surprises such as SABIC (how many people know the SABIC brand?) which came in at 13th and Coca-Cola which came in at the 22nd spot. As their report spelled out clearly, brand perception is very important and we can not agree more.
Check out their full report at FutureBrand.
Finally, I applaud FutureBrand for sharing this great insight. Many companies would be well-served to utilize a similar brand research exercise in order the gather strong brand perceptions and forge a meaningful brand strategy for their future success.