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Apple Beats Google Into No. 2 Position, Becomes World's Top Brand

Ikea, Starbucks, and Al Jazeera Feature Too In the Top Five
By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
January 31, 2005 12:00 AM EST
Reads:
 34,191
What does Apple have in common with Google, Ikea, Starbucks, and Al Jazeera? Answer: it has been rated one of the "most influential brands of 2004" in a survey conducted by the online magazine, Brandchannel. In fact, Apple came in at No. 1 - edging out Google, which took the top slot in the same survey one year ago.

Some 2,000 advertising executives, brand managers, and academics were asked: "Which brand had the most impact on your life in 2004?"

Asked why he thought Al Jazeera, the Arab News Channel, had made the list of "most influential brands," Brandchannel Editor Robin Rusch said, somewhat controversially:

"With all the news from Iraq and Afghanistan and the 'war on terror', a lot of people are really tuned into the news, and the major news sources have a western bias."

He added: "I think people are tuning in to al-Jazeera and looking at its website because it does offer another viewpoint. For the global community, it's one of the few points of access we have to news from the region with a different perspective."

Less contentious is Rusch's view on why Apple has edged Google out of the No.1 slot.

"The iPod is what has put Apple in the lead this year," he said. "Apple's just done an extraordinary job with innovation, technology and design."

Google's co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page probably took comfort in the fact that Google Inc.'s share price has doubled since they took the company public last year. You can't put the "most influential brand" title in the bank, after all. They can also console themselves, as Rusch pointed out, with the thought of how much growth potential Google still has: only 12.7 percent of the world's population has access to the Internet right now, leaving 5.6 billion potential future Googlers out there.

Published January 31, 2005 – Reads 34,191
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is Sr. Vice-President of SYS-CON Media & Events. He is Conference Chair of the all-new International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series, of the International Virtualization Conference & Expo series, of AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo series, and of the long-running SOAWorld Conference & Expo series. He's founder of Cloud Computing Journal, Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal and other leading SYS-CON titles. From 2000-6, as first editorial director and then group publisher of SYS-CON Media, he was responsible for the development of all new titles and i-Technology portals for the firm, and regularly represents SYS-CON at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of "Power Panels with Jeremy Geelan" on SYS-CON.TV.

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Most Recent Comments
Omission 02/03/05 02:09:02 PM EST

No Yahoo! anywhere in the list. How weird is that?
Applemaniac 02/02/05 05:53:06 PM EST

Quite right too.
Europe Too 01/31/05 07:46:36 AM EST

Extraordinary. Al Jazeera came in the top five in Europe & N Africa regional vote too. Also, dont they have iPods in Europe or what??

Europe & North Africa

1. Ikea
2. Virgin
3. H & M
4. Nokia
5. Al Jazeera
www_datefloor_com 01/31/05 07:19:14 AM EST

Google gets their revenue mostly from search, they rely on people going to their site and search for keywords and click on the pay per click.

If their traffic is flat, there is very likely that their revenue is going to be flat.

You can track google traffic at Alexa.com. In the past 3 months, their traffic is almost flat, with slight increase in Dec.

Apparently, they try to put in marketing dollars toward in Dec. to generate revenue.

Their reach per million went up by 16%, which is good, however, the average page views per users went down by 13%.

And now this.
Slimmer Is Better 01/31/05 06:53:37 AM EST

Where was Coca-Cola, it is nowhere to be found in this year's global top five list - not even in the regional one, i.e. in the US? If this trend continues will we all get less fat on Coke's empty calories, and go jogging to the sound of our iPods instead. Sounds great! Googling isn't quite as good exercise but it beats drinking Coca-Cola too anyday as a worthwhile activity. Geeks agree? (Maybe not alas.)
Brandchannel 01/31/05 06:50:03 AM EST

##who owns Brandchannel anyhow, not Murdoch obviously!!##

No idea, but here are some other weird surveys they've done recently:

:: Singapore's Most Valuable Brands 2004

:: France's Best Brands by Value

:: Brazil's Best Brands 2004
Al Jazeera vs Fox 01/31/05 06:45:22 AM EST

If Al Jazeera is the world's fifth most influential brand, then Fox must be eating its heart out - who owns Brandchannel anyhow, not Murdoch obviously!!
Why? 01/31/05 06:40:19 AM EST

Maybe this Rusch guy can also explain why Apple still sticks with a one-button mouse! ;-)
If it's all the same to you 01/31/05 06:38:31 AM EST

I think I'd rather have an iPod than an Al-Jazeera video thanks.