Coke tops world’s brands

COCA-Cola has been named as the world’s best brand for the first time, knocking Sony from its seven-year reign at the top.

The results of the annual Harris Poll of “best brands” also showed Toyota, which previously held the fourth position, move up to number three, while Dell, which held the second spot last year, drops two spots to number four.

The other places on the top-10 list of best brands are taken by: 5. Ford; 6. Kraft Foods; 7. Pepsi Cola; 8. Microsoft; 9. Apple, and 10. Honda.

Two brands dropped out of the list this year, Hewlett Packard (was seven) and General Electric (eight).

Four of the top 10 brands employ more than 7,000 people in Ireland.

Robert Fronk, senior vice-president, brand and strategy consulting at Harris Interactive said: “Top of mind association with being “best” is a good position for any brand.

“For a truly successful brand relationship though, the objective is not just awareness, but to foster the ongoing process and outcome of brand engagement, which requires more custom and sophisticated measures.”

Ten years ago only four of this year’s top 10 brands were on the list: Ford, which was number one, Sony (no three), Coca-Cola (no seven) and Pepsi Cola (no 10).

The online poll was conducted among 2,372 US adults last month.

Survey responses were unaided and a list of brand names was not presented to respondents.

The question asked was: “We would like you to think about brands or names of products and services you know. Considering everything, which three brands do you consider the best?”