For the second year in a row, BlackBerry and Thomson Reuters have earned a spot on Interbrand’s annual ranking of the “Best Global Brands.”
Last year the two companies were the first Canadian marques to earn a spot on the list, and this year managed to improve their positioning.
Research in Motion’s BlackBerry has moved up 10 spots to number 63 on the list, while its brand value increased 7% to US$5.1 billion.
“Blackberry created the [smartphone] category, and they remain the leader with 16 million subscribers globally,” said Bev Tudhope, chief executive of Interbrand Canada Inc., who also attributes innovation and a breadth of new products to the brand’s rise.
Tudhope said Apple’s iPhone has been good for the BlackBerry by spurring RIM towards new offerings like its own App store.
Thomson Reuters has moved up four positions to number 44 with a brand value of US$8.4 billion. Reuters had been on the list for years, but last year’s ranking was the first for the newly merged company (Thomson Corp. acquired Reuters, for approximately $17.2 billion) and a three-spot improvement over the year before.
“They have continued to invest in their brand… and they just have a very, very strong franchise. They’ve done a great job,” said Tudhope.
Tudhope predicts Canadian financial institutions like Manulife and Sunlife will soon make the list “given the way they have weathered the global financial meltdown.”
Coca-Cola took the top spot for the ninth year in a row ($68.7 billion); IBM came in second ($60.2 billion), followed by Microsoft, General Electric, Nokia and McDonald’s.
Brands like Motorola, Marriot hotels and FedEx dropped off this year’s list, while Burger King and Campbell’s soup made their debuts.
To qualify for the list, each brand must derive at least a third of its earnings outside its home country, be recognizable beyond its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data.
Interbrand evaluates brand value on the basis of how much it is likely to earn for the company in the future, and uses a combination of analysts’ projections, company financial documents, and its own qualitative and quantitative analysis to arrive at a net present value of those earnings.
The data is collected during a 12-month period ending June 2009.
