Summary
2 October 2009
The global recession has reduced the value of some of the world's biggest brand names, according to a recent report. The report finds some car and luxury product manufacturers have been seriously hit by the economic downturn.
Reporter:
Mark Gregory
According to the report, Coca-Cola remains the world's top brand
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Report
It's hard to put a financial value on a well-known corporate name but every year the marketing consultancy Interbrand has a go. For example, it claims the world's top brand Coca-Cola is currently worth $68bn, a couple of billion dollars less than 12 months earlier.
Its latest survey suggests the recession has had a considerable impact on the corporate pecking order. Car companies, such as BMW and Toyota, along with Harley Davidson motorcycles, have seen above average declines in the value of their brands - as have some luxury firms, like watchmakers Cartier and Rolex, and Armani clothing. The lesson seems to be consumers don't value expensive things they don't actually need to buy so much when times are hard.
Meanwhile, firms associated with relatively cheap products - McDonalds fast food and Kellogg's cornflakes, for example - have seen the value of their brands rise relative to others in the recession. The Google brand has also done well - maybe that's because more people are bargain-hunting on the internet.
According to the survey, the world's five most valuable brands are Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, General Electric and Nokia, unchanged from last year.
Mark Gregory, 大象传媒 News
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Vocabulary
- to put a financial value on
to estimate how much something is worth
- has a go
makes an attempt to do it
- top brand
most successful product/manufacturer (a brand is a trademark name by which a manufacturer and/or its products are known)
- has had a considerable impact on the corporate pecking order
has led to significant changes in the hierarchy of companies (a hierarchy is a system in society that is not written down as law where someone is considered more or less important than someone else)
- have seen above average declines
have been affected by higher than usual decreases or reductions
- luxury firms
companies that manufacture expensive goods that are nice to have but are not necessary, e.g. jewellery
- the lesson seems to be
the likely conclusion would be that
- associated with
here, known as producers of
- bargain-hunting
looking for cheaper deals
