BEST GLOBAL BRANDS 200100 / 9
7
UNDERSTANDING
Not only must customers recognize the brand, but there must also be an in-depth understanding of its distinctive qualities and characteristics, as well as those of the brand owner. Apple is a brand that customers immediately understand. They know what they get out of adopting and associating with it. Its products are seen as innovative and creative. In contrast to Dell, which creates products that lack any consistent visual cues, Apple’s design is consistent and distinctive – from the clean, silver or smooth white of its laptops to the pocketsize rectangle of its iPod or iPhone. This immediate understanding of the brand is in part due to its brand owner, Steve Jobs. Unlike Dell, which lacks an innovative face to match its brand, Jobs’s stamp is on everything Apple creates and he’s generally understood to be the brilliant visionary behind its products. Love him or hate him, he humanizes the brand by giving it a face. This means that even when Apple stumbles, as with iPhone 4’s reception problems, loyalists appear to be more accepting than they might be of another brand. Customers understand Jobs’s unwavering commitment to creating exceptional, beautiful products. As a result, they are perhaps more willing to give the Apple brand the benefit of the doubt, while the company works to ensure that its technology functions better. That’s not a card to play too often though! – Andy Payne, Interbrand Global Chief Creative Officer
10
DIFFERENTIATION
This is the degree to which customers perceive the brand to have a positioning that is distinct from the competition. This year, smartphone brands like Apple, Google and BlackBerry faced increased competition and found it particularly difficult to carve out a unique niche. All focused on creating products that stand out from competitors. Whether it's super sensitive touch, third-party apps, faster connection speed or more social capabilities, the war is on to build and preserve loyal customers through a differentiated positioning. BlackBerry may still lead, but the iPhone is the benchmark, with other brands close on their heels. Meanwhile, due to the financial downturn, banking brands have a new opportunity to differentiate. The previously lowinvolvement, inertia-driven category has become one driven by emotional, brand-influenced criteria. In particular, banks like Santander and Credit Suisse, which stayed relatively immune to the crisis due to conservative investment decisions, have succeeded in crafting a differentiated positioning this year. – Nina Oswald, Managing Director, Interbrand Cologne
8
CONSISTENCY
This measures the degree to which a brand is experienced without fail across all touchpoints and formats. When we think of consistency, Nike always comes to mind. With its iconic swoosh – a design element from the past – it creates one universal experience across every touchpoint, from advertisements to websites. In recent years, however, consistency has become a bit more complicated. As brands continue to expand, they feel the pressure to adapt to local markets. But this doesn’t have to lead to inconsistency. McDonald’s, with its green-tea-flavored milkshakes in Japan and its Chicken Maharaja-Mac in India, is consistent about its inconsistency – and has endeared itself to youth around the world. Nokia has adapted to the Indian market by creating models that are also functional flashlights (which come in handy for dust storms) and only available in that market; yet the product remains consistent with its brand promise, which is all about functional and creative mobile devices. At the same time, Disney, which is expected to deliver on unparalleled entertainment experiences, suffers when it merely duplicates its amusement parks around the world; to stay consistent with its brand promise, it would do better to reinvent them to delight and entertain new and diverse customers. – Atsushi Iwashita, CEO of Interbrand Tokyo