Big Data From CoreBrand Predicts Future Shake-Up In Top 100 Brand Rankings

NEW YORK, May 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CoreBrand, a leading full-service brand consultancy and creator of the Corporate Branding Index®, which provides continuous benchmarking data, insights and corporate brand valuation for over 1,000 companies, across 54 industries, today released its Favorability Report, the latest report in its BrandPower Series following its Sixth Annual Top 100 BrandPower Rankings Report on Tier 1 brands. The new study focuses on identified trends in the Favorability attribute of top brands, and identifies big opportunities for Tier 2 brands.

"Our Top 100 BrandPower Rankings Report demonstrated an unusual downward trend in Favorability, which led us to conclude that while many companies maintained or improved in brand awareness, overall market sentiment toward corporations is skeptical," commented James R. Gregory, founder and CEO of CoreBrand. "This new report takes a more detailed look at the specific attributes that comprise Favorability to better understand the specific dynamics that are influencing brand performance and business outcomes."

In the Favorability Report, CoreBrand analyzed the three components that make up a company's Favorability score: 1) Overall Reputation; 2) Perception of Management; and 3) Investment Potential. For a typical brand, these three attributes behave in a hierarchical way, with the Overall Reputation score being the highest, followed by Perception of Management and Investment Potential. Misalignment of these attributes raises a red flag, and can help CoreBrand diagnose and prescribe specific action to improve overall brand effectiveness.

Key Findings 

• The downward trend in Favorability across the entire Top 100 seems to have started to slow down and level off, starting in 2010. There has been a clear, but gradual, rebound in sentiment towards companies since the financial crisis, although there still is some way to go until we reach the point of recovery.
• The attribute "Perception of Management" is the critical driver of the decrease in Favorability scores. This finding tells us that companies need to focus on building the image of their leadership through frequent and transparent communication to build trust.
• Overall, there is evidence of strength and confidence returning to corporate brands, suggesting that the economic recovery is assuredly underway.
• Companies in Tier 2 (ranked 101-200) have a surprising upward momentum in Favorability, showing that they are poised to overtake many of the Top 100. If this trend continues, it is quite possible there will be a huge shake-up in the Top 100 BrandPower Rankings over the next few years. 

"The most interesting finding we uncovered came from our analysis of Tier 2 companies, where we saw a strong upward movement in Favorability scores, unlike what we observed with the Top 100," added Mr. Gregory. "The companies in Tier 2 show a resiliency that is not present in other tiers. Tier 2 companies not only benefit from strong brand awareness and perception, but have been largely shielded from the perception of being responsible for persisting economic conditions. Most of this blame, whether deservingly or not, has fallen on the leadership of the most prominent brands. If Tier 2 companies continue to adeptly manage their brands, we will not be surprised if the Top 100 BrandPower Rankings look quite different in five years' time."

CoreBrand's BrandPower Rankings are derived from an annual survey of more than 10,000 business decision-makers from the top 20 percent of U.S. businesses who represent the investment community, potential business partners, and business customers. BrandPower is a measure of size (Familiarity) and quality (Favorability), Familiarity representing how aware a survey respondent is with a brand and Favorability representing perceptions of the brand. BrandPower Rankings compare the size and quality of a brand to all other brands in the Corporate Branding Index. The BrandPower Rankings provide a market-view evaluation of corporate brand strength regardless of industry affiliation.

The complete Favorability Report can be viewed here.

In CoreBrand's next report, they will concentrate on some of the specific brands that were examined in this analysis. We will focus in on companies with interesting and unusual patterns of Perception of Management and look to identify which companies are driving growth or declines.

About CoreBrand
CoreBrand, an independent branding firm based out of New York City and Los Angeles, specializes in practical and applicable brand research, strategy, identity and management for global companies of all sizes and in all sectors. As the creator of the Corporate Branding Index®, a 20 year old index that provides continuous benchmarking data, insights and corporate brand valuation for over 1,000 companies, across 54 industries, CoreBrand is the only firm that links brand identity to financial performance through data and analysis. With a focus on using brand as a business asset to improve corporate value, CoreBrand creates the measurable difference. To learn more about CoreBrand, please visit http://www.corebrand.com.

SOURCE CoreBrand