The 100 Hardest Working Brands In The World

October 20, 2009 by Douglas A. McIntyre

There are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.

24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed  by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)

Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.

24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?

Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”.  Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless.  How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business.  Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.

24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?

Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets.  A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value.  If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.

The list:

Company Brand Equity % Market Cap Rank Brand Equity $ Value Rank Ticker Symbol Industry
Hershey Company 1 95 HSY Food
Coca-Cola Company 2 9 KO Beverages
Harley-Davidson 3 109 HOG Hotel & Entertainment
Campbell Soup 4 86 CPB Food
Kellogg Company 5 65 K Food
Colgate-Palmolive Company 6 32 CL Toiletries, Household Products
FedEx Corporation 7 49 FDX Transportation
Barnes & Noble 8 206 BKS Retailers
American Express Company 9 29 AXP Diversified Financial
Starbucks Corporation 10 72 SBUX Restaurants
UPS 11 26 UPS Transportation
Mattel 12 106 MAT Hotel & Entertainment
Johnson & Johnson 13 4 JNJ Medical Supplies, Services
Del Monte Foods Company 14 169 DLM Food
Wendy’s Arby’s Group 15 170 WEN Restaurants
Black & Decker 16 155 BDK Industrial Equipment
General Mills 17 61 GIS Food
Walt Disney Company 18 27 DIS Hotel & Entertainment
Estée Lauder Companies 19 103 EL Toiletries, Household Products
Bed Bad & Beyond 20 97 BBBY Retailers
McDonald’s Corporation 21 25 MCD Restaurants
Sony Corporation 22 46 SNE Electronics, Electrical Equip.
Honda Motor Company 23 28 HMC Motor Vehicles
Eastman Kodak Company 24 211 EK Precision Instruments
Lowe’s Companies 25 43 LOW Retailers
Target Corporation 26 35 TGT Retailers
IBM Corporation 27 7 IBM Computers & Peripherals
Xerox Corporation 28 114 XRX Office Equipment
Gap, The 29 78 GPS Retailers
Nike 30 45 NKE Apparel, Shoes
La-Z Boy 31 265 LZB Furniture, Home Furnishings
American Greetings Corporation 32 225 AM Packaging
PepsiCo 33 17 PEP Beverages
Toyota Motor Corporation 34 12 TM Motor Vehicles
New York Times 35 210 NYT Publishing
General Electric Company 36 5 GE Diversified Industrials
Whirlpool Corporation 37 127 WHR Industrial Equipment
Liz Claiborne 38 245 LIZ Apparel, Shoes
Home Depot 39 30 HD Retailers
Yahoo! 40 57 YHOO Internet
Sara Lee Corporation 41 111 SLE Food
Wal-Mart Stores 42 3 WMT Retailers
Avon Products 43 85 AVP Toiletries, Household Products
Marriott 44 100 MAR Hotel & Entertainment
Charles Schwab 45 67 SCHW Brokerage
Polo Ralph Lauren 46 112 RL Apparel, Shoes
Microsoft Corporation 47 2 MSFT Computer Software
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company 48 143 GT Auto Parts
J. C. Penney Company 49 105 JCP Retailers
Ford Motor 50 64 F Motor Vehicles
Nissan Motor 51 48 NSANY Motor Vehicles
Sherwin-Williams Company 52 113 SHW Chemicals
Boeing 53 42 BA Aerospace, Defense
Procter & Gamble Company 54 6 PG Toiletries, Household Products
Tupperware Corporation 55 164 TUP Toiletries, Household Products
Kraft Foods 56 39 KFT Food
H&R Block 57 119 HRB Diversified Financial
AT&T 58 13 T Telecommunication Services
Apple 59 8 AAPL Computers & Peripherals
Motorola 60 73 MOT Telecommunication Equipment
Kohl’s Corporation 61 74 KSS Retailers
FujiFilm Holdings 62 90 FUJIY Electronics, Electrical Equip.
Sunoco 63 152 SUN Petroleum Refining
Radioshack Corporation 64 187 RSH Retailers
Verizon Communications 65 23 VZ Telecommunications Services
Borders Group 66 312 BGP Retailers
Walgreen Company 67 41 WAG Pharmacy Services
Dell 68 51 DELL Computers & Peripherals
DuPont 69 50 DD Chemicals
Office Depot 70 184 ODP Office Equipment
Pitney Bowes 71 132 PBI Office Equipment
Allstate Corporation 72 80 ALL Insurance
Hormel Foods Corporation 73 137 HRL Food
Staples 74 82 SPLS Office Equipment
H. J. Heinz 75 94 HNZ Food
Exxon Mobil Corporation 76 1 XOM Petroleum Refining
Honeywell International 77 58 HON Diversified Industrials
OfficeMax 78 228 OMX Office Equipment
Loews Corporation 79 88 L Diversified Industrials
Saks 80 233 SKS Retailers
CVS Caremark Corporation 81 31 CVS Pharmacy Services
Rite Aid 82 213 RAD Pharmacy Services
Canon 83 34 CAJ Electronics, Electrical Equip.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company 84 36 BMY Pharmaceuticals
Tyson Foods 85 138 TSN Food
Morgan Stanley 86 40 MS Brokerage
Texas Instrument 87 59 TXN Semiconductors
Google 88 10 GOOG Internet
eBay 89 53 EBAY Internet
Capital One Financial 90 87 COF Diversified Financial
Papa John’s 91 259 PZZA Restaurants
Tiffany & Company 92 135 TIF Retailers
Sprint Nextel Corporation 93 107 S Telecommunication Services
Timberland Company 94 251 TBL Apparel, Shoes
Chevron Corporation 95 15 CVX Petroleum Refining
Daimler 96 33 DAI Motor Vehicles
B. F. Goodrich 97 122 GR Aerospace, Defense
Aetna 98 104 AET Medical Supplies, Services
Pep Boys 99 266 PBY Retailers
Continental Airlines 100 189 CAL Transportation

Methodology: CoreBrand tracks 800 of the world’s best corporate brands and maintains the largest continuous brand benchmark tracking system.

Each year, on a rolling basis, CoreBrand conducts 8,000 telephone interviews among business leaders to measure their perceptions of some of the world’s best corporate brands. Respondents are business decision-makers from the top 20% of U.S. businesses.

This senior business audience (VP level and above) represents the investment community, potential business partners, and business customers across 49 key industries. 400 respondents rate each company per year; 800 companies are measured each year. Our reports are updated on a quarterly basis to reflect any subtle changes.

CoreBrand collects financial performance data and communications investment information to understand the support behind and impact of these brands. These corporate brand strength ratings, as well as a company’s financial data are used in CoreBrand’s statistical model to determine the percentage of market capitalization that is directly derived from the corporate brand. Once that percentage is calculated, a dollar value is assigned to the corporate brand.

The percentage of market capitalization, attributable to the corporate brand. The percentage is then translated into a dollar value, based on the current market capitalization. The analysis is examined over time, to determine if the corporate brand is a growing or declining asset.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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