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Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson Maintain #1 and #2 Spots,

Harley-Davidson Takes Third, Hershey Foods into Fourth

NEW YORK NY March 18 – The number one and two spots on CoreBrand’s 2008 Corporate Branding Index rankings have remained unchanged since 2004, with The Coca-Cola Company in first and Johnson & Johnson in second place.

“The current economic crisis is not a brand crisis. Corporate brands remain strong in the face of the downturn,” said James Gregory, CEO, CoreBrand (www.CoreBrand.com). “However, some strong brands are being run over by the economy because brands are not stronger than the underlying financials of a corporation (e.g. GE has a relatively strong brand but has significant financial exposure so the brand is hurting).”

Brand Power Movers

Harley-Davidson moved up one place to 3rd replacing Hershey Foods,  which is now in 4th place. Likewise, Campbell Soup moved up one spot to 5th place, replacing Hallmark, which is now in 6th place.  UPS remained unchanged at 7th place. Colgate-Palmolive moved up one spot to 8th place replacing FedEx which is now in 9th place. 

Kudos to Kellogg’s!

Of the top ten, only Kellogg Company at 10th place has shown significant growth moving up from 15th place in 2007 and up from 21st place in 2005.

In 12th place and moving up quickly is BMW which moved up from 16th place in 2007 and from 28th place in 2005. BMW is one automotive company that is enjoying less negative publicity at a time when most of the automotive industry is being pummeled by historic losses.

A couple of big winners in the Brand Power Rankings are, Bayer , which has moved into 17th place from  27th in 2007 and 45th in 2005. St. Jude Medical has also moved up steadily to 28th place in 2008 from 59th place in 2005. It is unclear what is driving St. Jude’s growing brand power, but it might reflect an unrelated brand with the same name, the St. Jude Hospital’s and their hospital’s excellent work.

Visa and MasterCard have both moved up steadily since 2005. Visa is now in 23rd place up from 36th in 2007 and 44th in 2005. MasterCard is now in 31st place up from 44th in 2007 and 57th in 2005. This is an interesting horserace to watch as both companies gallop toward the top of the list. Interestingly, American Express, which is never one to rest on its laurels, is in 11th place this year up from 13th in 2007 and 16th in 2005.

Toiletries and cosmetics companies continue to see improvements. Revlon has rallied steadily from 61st place in 2005 to 33rd place in 2008. L’Oreal has also progressed steadily from 89th place in 2005 to 52nd place in 2008. Likewise, Estee Lauder has shown big gains moving up from 60th place in 2005 to 34th in 2008.

Starbucks had a notable loss as it dropped from 10th place in 2007 to 14th place in 2008. This isn’t a major surprise since its latest publicity has focused on they have been in the news a lot with store closings and competitive pressures.

PepsiCo has also been dropping at an alarming rate  as it dropped from 4th place in 2005 , to 11th place in 2007 to 18th place in 2008. Let’s hope its new corporate identity program will generate some fizz in its corporate brand.

General Electric is losing steam dropping having dropped from 12th place in 2005, to 17th place in 2007, to 24th place in 2008. It is clear that GE’s significant Olympic campaign didn’t help do much to bolster its corporate brand. This is proof that the brand cannot offset financial turmoil.

Other major losers are Procter & Gamble , which has dropped steadily from 31st place in 2005 to 39th place in 2008. General Motors has also dropped steadily from 30th place in 2005 to 41st place in 2008.

Apparel was a mixed bag. While Levi Strauss has dropped significantly and steadily from 20th place in 2005, to 38th place in 2007, to 49th place in 2008, . While Fruit of the Loom moved up from 83rd place in 2005 to 43rd in 2008. Tommy Hilfiger improved from 88th place in 2005 to 65th in 2008.

Microsoft was the headliner news in last year’s Brand Power Rankings. It should be noted that over the past year Microsoft has made a significant effort to bolster its corporate brand. One can argue that the campaign was poorly focused, but the end result is that Microsoft has checked the bleeding of its brand and has actually improved somewhat. In 2005 Microsoft ranked 26th place, they dropped 28 spots to 59th place in 2007, and then in 2008 they improved to 54th place. The challenge of reclaiming around a corporate brand that is plummeting dropping like a rock cannot be overstated.

Apple, which was mentioned last year in my Fox Business broadcast as the nemesis of Microsoft because of Apple’s its tremendously effective, “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign, continues to grow its corporate brand. Apple’s  now has a corporate brand is now in 91st place;, this is up from 119th place in 2007 and 128th place in 2005.

Final thought:

Following last year’s broadcast, there were many articles written discussing how Apple should have been ranked as one of the top brands, but our Brand Power Ranking didn’t place the technology giant in the top 100. Everyone should be reminded that our study is focused on corporate brands, not product brands. While those who love Apple must be considered brand zealots who rate it with very high  in favorability, there are many more people who don’t feel as strongly about the Apple corporate brand. It is best to view the trends of these rankings rather than to consider the rank as absolute. Nevertheless, Apple is doing very well indeed.

Overview and method:

The Corporate Branding Index® is a quantitative research study among business decision makers in the US. This study has been conducted continuously since 1990 based on 1200 companies across 49 industries. Over 12,000 surveys are completed every year. CoreBrand’s Brand Power rankings are based upon the familiarity and favorability of these business decision makers toward the corporate reputation of these 1200 companies.

This report is not a consumer popularity poll but rather a study of how corporate brands influence the attitudes of business leaders to do business with each other, to get investors, partners, B2B customers and ultimately the impact they have on market capitalization.