Best Global Brands 2007 : The Top 100 Brands (BusinessWeek & Interbrand)

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The Top 100 Brands

BusinessWeek and Interbrand team up to rate the best brands

Interbrand takes many ingredients into account when ranking the value of the Best Global Brands. Even to qualify for the list, each brand must derive at least a third of its earnings outside its home country, be recognizable outside of its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data.

The brand valuations draw upon publicly available information, which has not been independently investigated by Interbrand. Valuations do not represent a guarantee of future performance of the brands or companies.

Biggest Winners

Companies like Google, Apple, Nintendo, and Zara honed their products and image to leapfrog competition in the marketing stakes

Yes, Coca-Cola is still No.1. But several other brands have done well in the past year, shooting up Interbrand's list by six or more spots. They range from Apple, which rode a wave of iPhone hype to the No.33 spot, to Nintendo, which has had runaway success with its Wii video game console, launched late last year. The biggest ranking jump came from Zara, an innovative Spanish fashion retailer that leaped nine spots to No.64. Far and away the biggest percentage jump was claimed by Google, jumping 44% and four spots to number 20.

To qualify for the BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands list, a third of a company's sales must occur outside its home country. Future earnings potential is also taken into account, with the ranking derived by analyzing how a brand influences consumer decisions, the company's financial well-being, and its ability to sustain earnings and brand loyalty in the future. Here's a detailed look at the fastest-improving brands

Biggest Losers

Why some brands sank in this year's rankings and what they can do to climb back up the list

Even powerful names can lose relevance, and this year's BusinessWeek/Interbrand list of the best global brands includes a number of companies that have stumbled. Motorola, for example, may have put too much faith in its once-cutting-edge RAZR phone, overlooking the fact that it's not so long before "hot" becomes "not." This year Motorola dropped 8 spots on the list, to No. 77. Other companies, such as Kodak, Ford and Gap, just keep tripping up — the three have all made the Best Global Brand's "Biggest Losers" list for several years running.

Any brand included on the BusinessWeek/Interbrand list of Best Global Brands must make a third of its sales outside of its home country. Brands are also ranked on future earnings potential. Take a look here at some of the brands that didn't do so well in the last year, and read some expert tips on how they could do better:

Brands on the Verge

Find out which brands climbed up the list, which slipped off, and which are gearing up for contention next year

Here's something you don't see every day: insurance giants hailed as brand trendsetters. Companies including AXA, AIG, and Allianz are all new additions to the BusinessWeek/Interbrand list of Best Global Brands, earning consumer attention through everything from sports sponsorships to witty marketing campaigns. In contrast, pharmaceutical companies were left off this year's list. "Pfizer (No. 38 last year) and Novartis (No. 43 last year) were deliberately removed because these corporate brands add very little to the businesses' value creation and these companies focus their branding efforts on the product brands," says Jan Lindeman, Interbrand's Brand Valuation Director.

But some brands are heating up. Companies like BlackBerry, Heineken, and Puma may not trouble Coca-Cola any time soon, but their growing brand presence could garner a spot on next year's top 100, having just missed the mark this year. Of course, not every brand did well this year: Companies like Armani, Levi's, and Bulgari slipped off the top 100 altogether. But their plights can't exactly be portrayed as desperate. According to Interbrand Chief Communications Officer Graham Hales, "None are disappearing from the field of view."

The Top 100 Brands 

2007 Brand Rank	2006 Brand Rank	Change in Rank	Brand Name	2007 Brand Value $m	2006 Brand Value	Change in Value From Prev Year (in %)	Parent Company	Country
1	1	0	Coca-Cola	65,324	67,000	-3	Coca-Cola	U.S.
2	2	0	Microsoft	58,709	56,926	3	Microsoft	U.S.
3	3	0	IBM	57,091	56,201	2	IBM	U.S.
4	4	0	GE	51,569	48,907	5	GE	U.S.
5	6	1	Nokia	33,696	30,131	12	Nokia	FINLAND
6	7	1	Toyota	32,070	27,941	15	Toyota	JAPAN
7	5	-2	Intel	30,954	32,319	-4	Intel	U.S.
8	9	1	McDonald's	29,398	27,501	7	McDonald's	U.S.
9	8	-1	Disney	29,210	27,848	5	Walt Disney	U.S.
10	10	0	Mercedes-Benz	23,568	21,795	8	DaimlerChrylser	GERMANY
11	11	0	Citi	23,443	21,458	9	Citigroup	U.S.
12	13	1	Hewlett-Packard	22,197	20,458	9	Hewlett-Packard	U.S.
13	15	2	BMW	21,612	19,617	10	BMW	GERMANY
14	12	-2	Marlboro	21,283	21,350	0	Altria	U.S.
15	14	-1	American Express	20,827	19,641	6	American Express	U.S.
16	16	0	Gillette	20,415	19,579	4	Procter & Gamble	U.S.
17	17	0	Louis Vuitton	20,321	17,606	15	Louis Vitton Moet Hennessy	FRANCE
18	18	0	Cisco	19,099	17,532	9	Cisco	U.S.
19	19	0	Honda	17,998	17,049	6	Honda Motor	JAPAN
20	24	4	Google	17,837	12,376	44	Google	U.S.
21	20	-1	Samsung	16,853	16,169	4	Samsung	S. KOREA
22	21	-1	Merrill Lynch	14,343	13,001	10	Merrill Lynch	U.S.
23	28	5	HSBC	13,563	11,622	17	HSBC Holdings	BRITAIN
24	23	-1	Nescafe	12,950	12,507	4	Nestle	SWITZERLAND
25	26	1	Sony	12,907	11,695	10	Sony	JAPAN
26	22	-4	Pepsi	12,888	12,690	2	PepsiCo	U.S.
27	29	2	Oracle	12,448	11,459	9	Oracle	U.S.
28	32	4	UPS	12,013	10,712	12	United Parcel Service	U.S.
29	31	2	Nike	12,004	10,897	10	Nike	U.S.
30	27	-3	Budweiser	11,652	11,662	0	Anheuser-Busch	U.S.
31	25	-6	Dell	11,554	12,256	-6	Dell Inc.	U.S.
32	33	1	JPMorgan	11,433	10,205	12	JPMorgan Chase	U.S.
33	39	6	Apple	11,037	9,130	21	Apple	U.S.
34	34	0	SAP	10,850	10,007	8	SAP	GERMANY
35	37	2	Goldman Sachs	10,663	9,640	11	Goldman Sachs	U.S.
36	35	-1	Canon	10,581	9,968	6	Canon	JAPAN
37	36	-1	Morgan Stanley	10,340	9,762	6	Morgan Stanley	U.S.
38	41	3	Ikea	10,087	8,763	15	Ikea	SWEDEN
39	42	3	UBS	9,838	8,734	13	UBS AG	SWITZERLAND
40	40	0	Kellogg's	9,341	8,776	6	Kellogg Company	U.S.
41	30	-11	Ford	8,982	11,056	-19	Ford Motor	U.S.
42	48	6	Philips	7,741	6,730	15	Koninklijke Philips Electronics	NETHERLANDS
43	44	1	Siemens	7,737	7,828	-1	Siemens	GERMANY
44	51	7	Nintendo	7,730	6,559	18	Nintendo	JAPAN
45	45	0	Harley-Davidson	7,718	7,739	0	Harley-Davidson	U.S.
46	46	0	Gucci	7,697	7,158	8	Gucci Group	ITALY
47	NR	NA	AIG	7,490	NA	NA	American International Group	U.S.
48	47	-1	eBay	7,456	6,755	10	EBAY	U.S.
49	NR	NA	AXA	7,327	NA	NA	AXA	FRANCE
50	49	-1	Accenture	7,296	6,728	8	Accenture	BERMUDA
51	53	2	L'Oreal	7,045	6,392	10	L'Oreal	FRANCE
52	50	-2	MTV	6,907	6,627	4	Viacom	U.S.
53	54	1	Heinz	6,544	6,223	5	Heinz	U.S.
54	56	2	Volkswagen	6,511	6,032	8	Volkswagen	GERMANY
55	55	0	Yahoo!	6,067	6,056	0	Yahoo	U.S.
56	57	1	Xerox	6,050	5,918	2	Xerox	U.S.
57	58	1	Colgate	6,025	5,633	7	Colgate-Palmolive	U.S.
58	61	3	Chanel	5,830	5,156	13	Chanel	FRANCE
59	59	0	Wrigley's	5,777	5,449	6	Wm. Wrigley Jr.	U.S.
60	60	0	KFC	5,682	5,350	6	Yum Brands	U.S.
61	52	-9	Gap	5,481	6,416	-15	The Gap	U.S.
62	65	3	Amazon.com	5,411	4,707	15	Amazon.com	U.S.
63	63	0	Nestle	5,314	4,932	8	Nestle	SWITZERLAND
64	73	9	Zara	5,165	4,235	22	Inditex	SPAIN
65	62	-3	Avon	5,103	5,040	1	Avon Products	U.S.
66	68	2	Caterpillar	5,059	4,580	10	Caterpillar	U.S.
67	67	0	Danone	5,019	4,638	8	Groupe Danone	FRANCE
68	74	6	Audi	4,866	4,165	17	Volkswagen	GERMANY
69	71	2	Adidas	4,767	4,290	11	adidas	GERMANY
70	64	-6	Kleenex	4,600	4,842	-5	Kimberly-Clark	U.S.
71	72	1	Rolex	4,589	4,237	8	Rolex	SWITZERLAND
72	75	3	Hyundai	4,453	4,078	9	Hyundai Motor	S. KOREA
73	81	8	Hermes	4,255	3,854	10	Hermes International	FRANCE
74	66	-8	Pizza Hut	4,254	4,694	-9	Yum Brands	U.S.
75	80	5	Porsche	4,235	3,927	8	Porsche	GERMANY
76	78	2	Reuters	4,197	3,961	6	Reuters Group	BRITAIN
77	69	-8	Motorola	4,149	4,569	-9	Motorola	U.S.
78	77	-1	Panasonic	4,135	3,977	4	Matsushita Electric Industrial	JAPAN
79	82	3	Tiffany	4,003	3,819	5	Tiffany	U.S.
80	NR	NA	Allianz	3,957	NA	NA	Allianz	GERMANY
81	85	4	ING	3,880	3,474	12	ING Groep	NETHERLANDS
82	70	-12	Kodak	3,874	4,406	-12	Eastman Kodak	U.S.
83	86	3	Cartier	3,852	3,360	15	Cartier	FRANCE
84	76	-8	BP	3,794	4,010	-5	BP plc	BRITAIN
85	87	2	Moët & Chandon	3,739	3,257	15	Louis Vitton Moet Hennessy	FRANCE
86	79	-7	Kraft	3,732	3,943	-5	Kraft Foods	U.S.
87	83	-4	Hennessy	3,638	3,576	2	Louis Vitton Moet Hennessy	FRANCE
88	91	3	Starbucks	3,631	3,099	17	Starbucks	U.S.
89	84	-5	Duracell	3,605	3,576	1	Procter & Gamble	U.S.
90	88	-2	Johnson & Johnson	3,445	3,193	8	Johnson & Johnson	U.S.
91	93	2	Smirnoff	3,379	3,032	11	Diageo	BRITAIN
92	92	0	Lexus	3,354	3,070	9	Toyota Motor	JAPAN
93	89	-4	Shell	3,331	3,173	5	Royal Dutch Shell	BRITAIN
94	96	2	Prada	3,287	2,874	14	Prada	ITALY
95	98	3	Burberry	3,221	2,783	16	Burberry	BRITAIN
96	99	3	Nivea	3,116	2,692	16	Beiersdorf	GERMANY
97	94	-3	LG	3,100	3,010	3	LG	S. KOREA
98	90	-8	Nissan	3,072	3,108	-1	Nissan Motor	JAPAN
99	NR	NA	Polo RL	3,046	NA	NA	Polo Ralph Lauren	U.S.
100	NR	NA	Hertz	3,026	NA	NA	Hertz Global Holdings	U.S.

How five names in this year's rankings staged their turnarounds

Reviving even a storied brand isn't easy once consumers have a negative perception of it. Just ask Ford or Gap, which lost 19% and 15% of their brand value, respectively, in this year's BusinessWeek/Interbrand annual ranking of the 100 Best Global Brands. Even such perennial winners as Coca-Cola (No. 1) can have trouble boosting their brand. The beverage giant claimed the top spot for the seventh year in a row mostly because it is big and everywhere, but it failed to further burnish its reputation because its move into healthier drinks and snacks has yet to resonate.

Still, it's possible to stage a brand comeback. Several such stories emerged in this year's ranking, which is compiled in partnership with leading global brand consultant Interbrand Corp. and calculates brand value by using publicly available data, projected profits, and such variables as market leadership. While it's tempting for a challenged brand to emulate the likes of Google (GOOG ) (No. 20), Apple (AAPL ) (No. 33), or Starbucks (SBUX ) (No. 88), doing so can seem audacious at best, delusional at worst. A potentially more useful exercise: examining brands that have stumbled but recovered. "Benchmark brands should be studied, but solutions can seem a lot more accessible when you can see how someone fell and picked themselves up," says Interbrand CEO Jez Frampton.

Take Nokia Corp. (NOK ) Given its No. 5 ranking, it may seem crazy to consider the Finnish giant a comeback story. But it is one, as evidenced by a 12% jump in brand value, which extends a rankings winning streak after faltering in 2004. Nokia realized its focus on making cheap handsets for the developing world was hurting it in the U.S. and Europe, where consumers wanted phones that played video and surfed the Web. Nokia released high-end phones aimed at both the consumer and business user and is showing strength in emerging and mature markets alike.

Here are five more comeback stories. They detail Nintendo Co.'s (NTDOY ) successful campaign for new customers; what Audi is doing to catch up with BMW (BCX ); how Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ) persuaded consumers that it's hip; Burberry's strategy to escape the taint of ubiquity; and Citibank's (C ) moves to reposition itself as a (very big) local bank.

Nintendo
Daring to go after a new crowd
Nintendo's marketers had apretty good idea that the new Wii player would be a game changer, thanks to a newfangled wireless controller that is wielded like a light saber. And yet they didn't slap the Nintendo name on the gadget. Why? Because the company wanted to make it clear that the Wii was not just for gamers but was also a home entertainment system for all. "I'm not concerned about the spread of the Wii brand," says Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, "because I think the brand name of Nintendo is expanding with it."

To get across the message, Nintendo paired its advertising with a savvy PR campaign. The company identified influential bloggers who were either moms or members of large, multigenerational families. Ahead of the November, 2006, launch, Nintendo hosted parties for the individual families or for groups of the moms' friends, showing them how easy the Wii was for anyone to use. "You'd have grandparents picking up the controller and saying: Wow, I can actually do this,'" says Stephen Jones, executive vice-president at GolinHarris, which ran the Wii's PR campaign. "Grandparents could see this as a new way to play with their grandkids." That, along with mentions ranging from TV news stories about Wiis in nursing homes to an episode of South Park featuring a Wii-coveting Cartman, spurred word-of-mouth and buzz in all age groups.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Nintendo's Wii strategy has shaken the $30 billion gaming industry. The innovative player has sold well (9.3 million units and counting) and set Nintendo apart from its rivals. As a result, the company surged seven places, to No. 44, in this year's ranking and boosted its brand value by 18%. Revenues in the most recent quarter more than doubled to $2.83 billion, and Nintendo raised its annual profit forecast 42%, to $2.04 billion.

Audi
Hatching a plan and sticking to it
The Audi brand has long suffered in comparison with its more prestigious German rivals. If Wall Streeters drove BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes, Audi was embraced by suburban lawyers and the like. Now that's changing. Even in its home market, where people can be excessively snooty about their wheels, Volkswagen's premium brand has been ranking high in consumer surveys, with some of its models even placing ahead of BMW and Mercedes.

Ralph Weyler, the management board member in charge of global sales and marketing, credits a plan put in place 20 years ago to make "bold technological and design statements."Audi gradually gained respect throughout the 1990s and has had a slew of design hits of late, among them the R8 street racer, the Q7 SUV, and the A5 coupe. Models like these are transforming Audi from a mass-market carmaker to a premium one and help explain why the brand is on a tear. "An organization's long-term commitment to a sound, consistent plan can protect a company from a lot of mistakes that hurt brand value," says Interbrand's Frampton.

At the same time, Audi has been listening to consumers. A survey of 65,000 people worldwide conducted since 2001 shows that Audi now trails BMW and Mercedes by only a narrow margin in Europe and Asia. In the U.S., the automaker is spending heavily to polish its image. A long-running campaign that Americans found vague, themed "Never Follow," has given way to "Truth in Engineering." Global sales are up 9.8% overall in the first half of this year. And Audi has moved up six spots in the rankings, to No. 68, and increased its brand value 17%.

Hewlett-Packard
Challenging the status quo
Regaining your position as the world's biggest seller of personal computers is impressive, especially when just two years earlier critics were clamoring for you to get out of the PC business altogether.

Credit goes to CEO Mark Hurd, who told his lieutenants that Hewlett-Packard Co. had to stop building and marketing the PC as if it were a commodity. Designing PCs that consumers actually want was, of course, the starting point. Besides making them more attractive, HP included such features as the ability to check e-mail and appointments without wasting precious minutes booting up.

The marketing team then went about pitching HPPCs as a personal reflection of consumers' desires and needs. Hence the slogan: "The computer is personal again." Last summer the company rolled out ads showing hip-hop mogul Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter mixing music and planning tours using an HPPC. Rising sales and market share show that customers increasingly see HP's products, particularly its laptops, as cooler, hipper, and just plain better than Dell Inc.'s (DELL ).

Hurd also has focused on HP's sprawling global operations, using the same marketing strategy it is employing in the U.S. to ramp up consumer sales in emerging markets. In Russia, for example, HP has recently started mass advertising and selling PCs through retailers.

The comeback is reflected in the rankings. HP has gained 9% this year in brand value and 18% since 2005. That follows a 10% slide from 2004 to 2005. What's more, Hurd managed to keep his focus on the business even as his board broke into open warfare following a spying scandal that dominated the business news for several weeks last year.

Burberry
Mining the past to seize the future
When British soccer fans began donning Burberry hats en masse about five years ago, it became clear that the fashion icon had forfeited some of its prestige. Ditto when a British soap opera star appeared in the tabloids with her new baby swaddled head to toe in the iconic plaid pattern. When holiday sales tanked in 2004, Burberry knew that it was on its way to becoming overexposed. It was time to retrench. Since then, Burberry has walked a careful line: moving beyond plaid without disrespecting its fashion history.

In 2006, to mark its 150th anniversary, Burberry mined its design archives and launched the Icons collection, comprising luxury handbags, shoes, boots, trench coats, and small leather goods. The collection combined the classic Burberry look with such flourishes as quilted linings. Customers applauded. "It's a blend of old and new, functional yet fashionable," says Chief Financial Officer Stacey Cartright.

Meanwhile, Burberry began to do away with lower-end products such as stadium hats and scarves that retailed for less than $50. Originally these were aimed at winning younger shoppers who would trade up later on. But Burberry decided they undermined the brand and were too easy for counterfeiters to copy.

So far, the new direction is paying off. Burberry shares are up almost 40% in the past year alone, after taking four years to double from the July, 2002, initial public offering. And the company moved up three places in the rankings, to No. 95, and watched its brand value jump 16%. With its brand on the mend, Burberry is branching out into jewelry, such as bracelets that employ leather to mirror the brand's aesthetic, but skip the plaid.

Citibank
Staying big but going local
Wall Street and some institutional investors continue to push for a breakup of Citi, which they say should choose between being an investment bank or a consumer lender. And the stock is still languishing. But while the institutional banking side of the house has suffered setbacks under Citigroup CEO Charles "Chuck" Prince, the retail and consumer side of the business is growing and was the primary driver of global brand value in 2006. Indeed, Citi posted a 9% gain and held on to its position as the No. 11 global brand, thanks to a concerted effort to boost its retail presence.

Citi has long been a familiar brand, but it also shorted customers worldwide on retail services. In the U.S. and abroad, it badly trailed such rivals as Bank of America (BAC ) and even regional banks in terms of branch and ATM locations. What's more, its fees tended to be higher than competitors'.

As it opens thousands of branches worldwide, Citi has been focusing on looking more local. It's a strategy of selling itself as a "neighborhood bank" but one with the resources of the global giant it is, says Ajay Banga, chairman and CEO of the bank's Global Consumer Group.

Citi is going to its customers rather than the other way around. In the U.S. it put ATMs in more than 5,000 7-Eleven stores. In India, it has been opening branches on corporate campuses. In Singapore, its branches and ATMs are appearing in subway stations. Citi's new global ad campaign, "Let's Get It Done," replacing "Live Richly," reflects its focus on consumers' practical banking needs.

Although Citi is widely viewed as a U.S. company, Banga says the goal is to derive 60% of its consumer business outside the U.S. within a few years, from around 45% today. To win over South Indians, it made low-cost loans available to fisherwomen. In Turkey, it dialed down service fees and interest rates on credit cards, so it was no longer the priciest bank despite its premium-brand position. "We learned not to use your brand to stay at the top end of pricing, because it reduces trust," says Banga.

Breakdown 
Which companies are new to the list, which ones slipped off it altogether, and which are waiting in the wings

While the big stories from this year's Best Global Brands list invariably come from those brands moving up at high speed (see BusinessWeek, 8/6/07, "Biggest Winners") or from those plummeting like stones (see BusinessWeek, 8/6/07, "Biggest Losers"), there are also interesting lessons to be learned from a trio of brand types that hover closer to the bottom of the top 100: brands that are new to the list, brands that didn't make it this year, and brands that are waiting in the wings to seize their moment.

This year, insurance giants had their turn in the spotlight. While not previously rated, AIG (AIG ) (No. 47), AXA (AXA ) (No. 49), and Allianz (ALVG ) (No. 80) are all spending more to bring customer awareness to their brand. "Consumers now have more say about insurance—we're seeing it especially with health care," says Kevin Keller, a marketing professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. "Being able to market to them directly becomes more important."

Thus we've seen brands such as Munich, Germany's Allianz reaching out to a global consumer market. Last year, it attached its name to the starchitect-designed (Herzog and de Meuron) soccer stadium in its hometown, while this year it's an official sponsor of Formula 1 auto racing. It also plans to join the International Paralympic Committee at the Beijing 2008 Games.

THE FICKLENESS OF FASHION.  The other insurance companies also have been working to put themselves in the public eye. AIG is sponsoring player shirts for the Manchester United soccer club (in a deal that's good for the next four years), and AXA became a first-time Super Bowl advertiser with a giant gorilla campaign. It all echoes a wider trend that's notable across this year's list: the continued and accelerating diversification from the traditional marketing mix. Not that any of these huge brands are rejecting mass elements, such as broadcast, outright, but all are alert and open to alternatives (see BusinessWeek, 8/6/07, "McDonald's Supersized Gains").

It's telling that three of the brands that fell off the 2007 ratings altogether were fashion or retail related, reflecting the phrase: What goes around comes around. Style is cyclical, so these dips may not prove long-lasting, but also notable is that the three that fell are brands with a strong heritage that have struggled to retain relevance in the contemporary climate. Levi's in particular has wrestled with upstart, high-end denim competitors. And upscale Italian jeweler Bulgari fell off the list from its No. 95 spot last year.

"Whenever you're in the luxury category it's always tricky to keep it alive and growing," says Keller. "Bulgari should determine where it wants to play: ultra-rich, rich, or aspirational rich." Both Bulgari and another of this year's decliners, Armani , which fell from No. 97, have started hotel initiatives in recent years (Bulgari with boutique hotels in Milan and Bali; Armani set to open in the Burj Dubai after the skyscraper's scheduled completion in 2009). Both companies are looking to capitalize on the luxury associations consumers already have with their brands. Brave, forward-thinking strategies—that are fraught with risk.

"There's a huge market there and boutique luxury hotels are certainly the wave of the future," says David Vinjamuri, president of marketing training company ThirdWay Brand Trainers and adjunct marketing professor at New York University. "But if you don't do it right, it can hurt the underlying brand. Consumers cue off really small things—if the rooms aren't made up properly, if the pillow favors don't fit the hotel." Bad service could be enormously damaging for the brand as a whole. On the flip side, of course, a great, truly luxurious experience is a memory—and a brand association—a consumer can cherish forever.

WATCHING FOR BRAND OUTREACH.  Then, of course, there are the up-and-comers. Interbrand doesn't officially tally beyond 100 brands, but hinted that names such as Puma (PUMG ) and BlackBerry might feature in the top 100 next year. Heineken (HEIN ) also garnered attention with the successful launch of its Premium Light beer, its first major brand extension in 133 years. "It's not a premium beer over in Holland—it's an ordinary kind of beer there," says Keller of the beer brand. "The funny thing is most Americans don't know exactly where Heineken is from, but they know it's European and that Europe stands for beer. The company has taken advantage of that."

BlackBerry, meanwhile, is currently expanding its global reach to countries like Kenya and Jordan, with plans to launch in China in 2008. It will face a global tech market that is not familiar with its brand name. And with the arrival of the Apple (AAPL ) iPhone, parent company Research In Motion (RIM ) has to step up its brand game in every market. "There are so many strong global competitors involved," says Keller. "That will force them to be better marketers." To see if RIM pulled it off, check back next year.
 -  AUGUST 6, 2007. BusinessWeek.