Futurebrand recently released their top Future brands of the year. Link to study here
While it may be any big surprises it still is evident that it is still a valid benchmark of how and what the global competition is like among the biggest, baddest and strongest brands. How come Google is the new one? Here's my thoughts.
Google have over the years developed a multi-path approach, meaning that they are moving into new segments that drives new business and new engagement. With everything from search (its core) to innovations such as wearables: Google Glass and new endeavours like Google Design. All initiatives is with the motto: "Focus on the user and everyone else will follow".
That is the bottom-line of their success (now also visible in the ranking on this list)
Above they have listed their own key findings. A couple of things stand out and is worth emphasising. Brand Awareness is not enough to drive strong perception, which basically means that just to be known is not a good enough factor any longer. A successful brand of today needs to be more than just recognised it has to be known to contribute and get the recognition from something.
Financial value has less impact on the result that one might think, which is good. That tells that the survey have given value (other than financial) a bigger impact for recognition. Might be initiatives in emerging markets, like P&G.
Chinese brands are still missing out, I would say maybe for yet another 5 years. Then we will see a rather different list either by mergers or by buying in to the other companies. Another thing you could see through this is that these brands have yet to fulfil the needs of the consumers for quality and experience that would grant them a better spot on the list.
One last finding is that the list is dominated by tech companies and consumer related brands. One thing that I see is that the industrial sector is missing out. B2B seem to be somewhat weaker there. Expected but yet frustrating. The reason to that might be that they have a more traditional approach of how they approach their B2B customers. The B2B is shifting to a more B2C like approach when it comes to reaching to their customers and hopefully this will penetrate this list also in a few years time. One would not be left behind in the old fashioned way of branding themselves.
Are there any brands that I miss on on the top positions?
Of course, I would like to see our swedish flagships IKEA and H&M up there. They have their financials right, they have strengthen their initiatives when it comes to responsibility (or social impact) in the last few years to become really good at this.
I also miss out NIKE, which I regard to be a top 5 competitor for this list. One my references there is this study, which amplifies my thoughts that NIKE probably is one of the most innovative and progressive brands out there. I would stress that they are equally as innovative as Google and even smarter in their processes and how to transcend into new business areas.
So does this toplist have a huge impact? Well both yes and no.
I see this as a a adequate benchmark for organisations, big or small, to see how they aligned to the top. Hence a reminder that is still plenty of things to do to excel certain business areas, where results are less impressive. It is never to late to get influenced by best practice.
The race is always on, to be in the front you need to work hard each and every day. The initiative of putting brand work on top of your agenda will benefit both short and long-term and avoiding costly and huge strategy work every 5th year.
Brand in beta, work is never done.