JP's Place!

Not so long ago, I revised Chapter 10 from the textbook and noticed Exhibit 10.3 (page 192) which ranked “The World’s Ten Most Valuable Brands” in 2007. It gave me the idea to come up with a similar table for 2010 but for the 15 brands which value has increased the most in the previous year.

I’d like to analyze it. There is nothing scientific about the method I’ll employ. It will mostly be subjective but I’m sure it can show some actual trends among the consuming world!

Out of the 15 brands, 5 are in the Electronics sector, 4 in the Financial Services sector and  3 in the Internet Services sector. Not surprising is the value increase of companies opearating in the ITs. The whole world tends and wants to be connected more and more if not 24/7!! This explains Apple’s and Google’s first  and second place in the chart. For Apple, of course, its rise is not solely due to the IT trend’s effects. With its effective marketing strategies, Apple is able to build strong loyalty among its consumers and its number of aficionados is constantly increasing.

More surprising at first sight, perhaps, is the presence of 3 banks, J.P. Morgan, Allianz and HSBC, in the Top 15. One could argue that with the crisis they caused (in part), they don’t deserve to be there. It’s certainly true for many of their competitors but those 3 are major playors in the world which have taken better decisions in the past leading them to go through the economic downturn quite well compared to too many others. Such a behaviour is, in turn, rewarded by the markets and the consumers. This, therefore, could explain the presence of those financial institutions.

As for the future, we may predict that successful IT companies will continue to get more importance and more visibility in the world considering the trend toward technology is not near an end.