Vitrue have published a list of the top 100 social brands of 2008. Last year they launched their Social Media Index, one way of measuring a brand’s share of internet chatter.
Brands and branding have come out of agency speak and onto the balance sheet. Reputation and goodwill have been included and assessed as tangible assets in annual reports, in takeovers and in mergers and acquisitions. Companies can be bought for their name rather than their product. In these difficult times the value attached to a brand whose parent has gone into administration is being recognised and good strong brands are being bought up and developed rather than being left to disappear.
There’s a lot of media and technology in the upper reaches of the list as you might expect. As yet there aren’t any personal brands in the top 50. Another consideration is that its not a measure of positive feeling just the volume of association and comment. Not everyone loves Apple, Starbucks and Pepsi.
Argue amongst yourselves as to where your brands should be on the list. The only caveat is that maybe a yearly list is actually not current enough. It’s increasingly easy for a brand to rise and fall in a month rather than at the turn of the year.
I’m sure there’s a Fantasy Branding league somewhere…?
