NEW YORK NY April 13 – 2010 has been a relatively kind year to the CoreBrand Power Ranking of the top 100 brands, with 51% having improved in Brand Power over the past year, and 58% improving in Brand Power since 2007. “The standings still leaves plenty of room for improvement for most companies since some have fallen from grace dramatically, dropping over a dozen ranks or more in  extreme cases,” said James Gregory, CEO, CoreBrand.

Top performers: Coca Cola, Hershey, Campbell Soup...

The top ten companies in Brand Power rank are: Coca Cola, Hershey, Campbell Soup, Johnson & Johnson, Harley-Davidson, Kellogg, Colgate-Palmolive, UPS, Bayer and American Express.

Coca Cola managed to hold onto the top rank while Pepsi is now 12  places below, trying to work its way back into the top 10. Johnson & Johnson dropped two ranks to the fourth spot, having suffered a series of product recalls. Bayer moved into the top 10, having grown its brand 14 ranks since 2007. Kellogg has been showing continuous improvement (see below).

Biggest improvements

Google, not unexpectedly, has managed to grow by leaps and bounds, recording an astounding improvement of 62 ranks since 2007, and an increase of 23  since 2009. Visa and MasterCard continued their strong growth ranking 14 and 18 respectively.

Biggest decliners

Starbucks, which has declined steadily since 2007, now occupies the 23rd rank and seems to be plagued by a series of misfires by senior management. Procter & Gamble, which prides itself on promoting its’ product brands while ignoring its corporate brand, continues its decline to 48 in contrast to its perennial competitor Colgate-Palmolive, which enjoys a lofty corporate brand ranking of 7. “Unfortunately, P&G knows product branding while it ignores corporate branding,” noted CoreBrands’ Gregory.

Food

The food industry recorded another strong year. Both Hershey and Campbell Soup have continued their steady rise, taking the second and third ranks respectively. Kellogg’s has been growing dramatically over the past decade and is currently ranked sixth.

However, not all food companies made a strong showing. H. J. Heinz has dropped 10 ranks over the past year, and a total of  ranks since 2007.

Motor Vehicles

The automotive industry did not post a good year in Brand Power. Despite rebounding sales, only 25% of the car companies listed have improved their rankings since 2009, the  rest have all lost Brand Power. In fact, half of the companies have lost Brand Power for  several consecutive years with Toyota, Nissan and GM  the biggest losers. GM, especially,  fell 57 ranks since 2007.

“Toyota’s loss of 16 ranks since last year can be explained by the unrelenting dismal news coming out of the company,” said Gregory, “while Ford Motor Company is the anomaly, having turned the corner.

Household Products

Avon Products jumped 12 ranks in the past year, and a total of 42 ranks since 2007. A newcomer to the top 100 is Clorox at rank 100. Having risen almost 24 ranks in the past three years, Clorox has demonstrated impressive growth.

Computers

Of the five US companies within this industry to make  the top 100 in Brand Power, only IBM declined over the past three years. Apple continues its strong growth while both Dell and H-P have seen increases in their Brand Power, although in their perennial battle Dell’s growth is currently more prominent.

Hotels & Entertainment

Harley-Davidson is one of the few companies to maintain its rank at 5th over the past year, after having dipped a rank since 2007. Still within the top five companies though, Harley-Davidson is one of the strongest American brands. Marriott, however, is not so lucky, having fallen 10 ranks to 65th over the past year, and 25 ranks since 2007.

Getting the most of these corporate brand rankings

Ranking corporate brands is a tricky business. A company in crisis, for example, can increase in the ranking because its “Familiarity” rating rises (the company is in the news) while its “Favorability” rating decreases. Therefore, some companies may appear to receive unfair higher rankings than seemingly stronger brands. For example, Apple, which is much loved by enthusiasts, is ranked at 45, while Microsoft, which is often maligned, has a higher ranking of 35.

“The key to understanding the CoreBrand Brand Power  rankings is not to obsess on the finite ranking, but to look at the trend of the brand in comparison to the trend of others in the category,” said Corebrand’s James Gregory.

Methodology

Each year CoreBrand conducts 8,000 telephone interviews among business leaders to measure their perceptions of some of the world’s best corporate brands. Respondents are business decision-makers from the top 20% of U.S. businesses. This senior business audience (VP level and above) represents the investment community, potential business partners and business customers across 49 key industries. Four hundred respondents rate each company annually; 800 companies are measured. CoreBrand’s research collects financial performance data and communications investment information to understand the support behind, and impact on, these brands.

Respondents are first asked to rate their “Familiarity” with a series of companies. Scores are a weighted average of the top three responses. Respondents who have a qualified level of “Familiarity” are then asked to rate their “Favorability” of those companies across three dimensions. Overall Reputation, Perception of Management and Investment Potential attributes provide insight into the source of favorable/unfavorable impressions. Scores are a weighted average of the top three responses to create a measure of “Favorability.” “Familiarity” and “Favorability” data are combined to create a Brand Power rating, a single measure of the size and quality of a corporate brand.

About CoreBrand

CoreBrand is an independent firm in business for nearly 30 years, focused on correlating branding to financial performance. The firm was founded and is managed by James R. Gregory, recognized as one of our industry’s leading advocates of corporate branding.

Headquartered in New York, and with offices in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, CoreBrand helps organizations improve brand performance, reputation and image by measuring, defining and leveraging their brands. Building solid marketing strategies driven by constituency insight is integral to everything we do. It’s through well-conceived and executed research that we gain this knowledge. Through qualitative studies and quantitative research, we structure analysis to meet the special needs and requirements of each client.