Tracking eight consecutive years of research–

NEW YORK — The 2011 edition of the World's 500 Most Influential Brands listing (eighth edition), produced exclusively by World Brand Lab, was announced Dec. 22. Apple surpassed Facebook to take this year's No. 1 position (from No. 2), while Facebook fell to second place. Google moved up two places from last year to the No. 3 spot. A total of 21 brands from mainland China made the cut this year; among them are CCTV, China Mobile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and State Grid, which all stand among the top 100.

World Brand Lab, chaired by 1999 Nobel Prize-winning economist and Colombia University professor Robert Mundell, Ph.D., is the wholly-owned subsidiary of World Executive Group , specializing in brand assessment, brand communications and brand management. The results of its research have become an important basis for many evaluations of intangible assets in enterprise mergers and acquisitions.

The World's 500 Most Influential Brands measures the global influence of brands, judging by the brand's ability to open up the market, its ability to take market share and its profitability. World Brand Lab grades world-class brands in accordance with three key indicators of Brand Influence: market share, brand loyalty and global leadership.

For more than half a year, World Brand Lab investigated and analyzed 8,000 world famous brands in 33 countries. Finally, in 2011 World's 500 Most Influential Brands , 26 countries were represented on the list; among which, the United States had 239 brands in the top 500, an increase of two compared to the previous year. France ranked No. 2 with 43 brands while Japan ranked No. 3 with 41 brands. The top ten countries also include: United Kingdom (39 brands), Germany (25), Switzerland (21), China (21), Italy (14), Netherlands (10) and Sweden (8).

Brands selected for the 2011 World's 500 Most Influential Brands cover 49 industries; the traditional media industry, despite gloomy prospects, maintained the No. 1 spot in the industry with 37 brands, but its overall ranking fell. Food and beverage industries ranked No. 2 in consumer goods with 32 brands; holding the same position as last year. The auto and retail industries increased slightly with 28 and 27 brands, respectively. But the future of the financial industry is still less than optimistic, showing a downward trend.

Dr. Steve Woolgar, professor of Said Business School, University of Oxford , analyzed 【 1 】 that brand culture is a rich amalgam of shared stories, images and associations and is conveyed by stories and interactions between consumers, companies, opinion leaders, popular culture and so on. The core element for multinational brands to gain acceptance from consumers from different countries is culture, which is the key of successful branding. Cultural conquest precedes brand conquest. The first question of the globalization for Chinese brands is whether Chinese culture itself can globalize.

Compared with the 2010 list, 15 brands are absent from this year's list, among which Kodak had the biggest fall. The former world leader in the imaging and printing industry, Kodak fell deep into a bankruptcy crisis, was left behind by the digital era and became the brand with the fastest rate of decline. As Harvard Business School professor John Deighton said 【 2 】 , marketing is experiencing a publishing revolution , which began with the digitization of content, accelerated by the birth of the search engine, and today embraces the use of social and mobile media. We have learned to sell the story to the finance-oriented business leaders who dominated the old industrial economy. Now we have to learn to sell it all over again, this time to the breed of software engineers who dominate the new information economy.

The unprecedented development of the Internet, information technology, new brand marketing philosophy and channel innovation have considerably shortened the time required by international brands to make their mark on world markets. The establishment of an international brand used to take at least 20 years, but now it only needs three years to complete. Young brands such as Twitter and Facebook have taken the lead over many world famous brands in spite of their relative youth. However, Professor Martin Kilduff of Judge Business School, University of Cambridge points out 【 3 】 that there is a great deal of buzz around the concepts of social networking, social capital, and social media. And managers should pay attention to personality, stereotyping, network structure, and serendipitous ties, lest they risk damage to personal and corporate brands.

Europe and America are where the industry revolution originated. The “old brands” of the world have occupied considerable proportions of the markets in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, etc. The 2011 World's 500 Most Influential Brands includes 224 brands with a history of 100 years or more; an increase of one over the previous year. The average age of the 500 brands listed for 2011 has achieved 100.09 years. Professor Ravi Dhar of the Yale University School of Management analyzed 【 4 】 that a critical challenge for marketing companies is to leverage consumer insights and translate product attributes into benefits that resonate with customers. For example, managers nowadays can only succeed and sustainably grow by promoting green products.

Professor Mundell, Chairman of World Brand Lab, said in the new wave of economic globalization, it is imperative for multinational corporations to apply global marketing strategies. Contrary to those who advocate for globalization with no national boundaries, I believe multinational brands cannot rid themselves of their nationality. More important is that a country's overall brand image takes on the role of strategic and competitive resource, which is reflected in multinational brands scrambling for foreign markets. In the process of global marketing, multinational corporations from countries, such as the U.S., France, Japan, Germany and others have an overall positive product or brand image in the host country, making their multinational corporation or multinational brands more likely to be accepted by consumers in the host country.

The complete list and report of The World's 500 Most Influential Brands was published in the World Executive Group's subsidiary magazine, World Entrepreneur , in December, 2011. Since 2003, World Brand Lab has been tracking data more than 30,000 major brands from 50 countries around the world. World Brand Lab has built the most comprehensive global brand database, the metrics of which include: brand age, brand birth, data changes, and competing brands. Chinese brands are still unable to meet the needs of brand differentiation in developed markets. It is infeasible to copy brand values created in China to foreign countries, and meanwhile Chinese companies lack an international level of creativity and brand management talent. 

C ompilati on   E xplanati on :

•  This list is compiled exclusively by World Brand Lab according to three indexes: market share, brand loyalty and global leadership.

•  The age of merged brands is based on that of the older brand before merger. For example, Reuters was established in 1850 and The Thomson Corporation was established in 1953, the brand age of Thomson Reuters after the merger is thus calculated from 1850

•  The nationalities of brands merged by multinationals are listed under their country of origin; brands having headquarters in multiple countries belong to their country of origin.

•  Brands spanning multiple industries belong to the industry of their most profitable, core business.

Annotation:

All citations are from articles provided by renowned scholars exclusively for World Brand Lab. Please refer to World Entrepreneur to read complete reports.

【 1 】 Brand Schizophrenics: Social Media and Neuromarketing

Author: Steve Woolgar, Chair of Marketing and Head of Science and Technology Studies (STS), Said Business School, University of Oxford.

【 2 】 Marketing in the Information Age
Author: John Deighton, professor, Harvard Business School.

【 3 】 Social networks and management — What are the key lessons for managers?
Author: Martin Kilduff, University of Cambridge Business School.

【 4 】 Marketers must take lead for green products to succeed
Author: Ravi Dhar, Yale University School of Management.