Coca-Cola retains the top slot in this year's Interbrand 100 Top Global Brands study with a brand value of $67.5bn (£36.4bn), marginally up from $67.3bn last year.
Despite suffering a dip in value, Microsoft retains its second slot with a brand value of $59.9bn down from $61.3bn last year and IBM remains third with a brand value of $53.7bn, representing a slight dip from last year's $53.7bn after it sold off its PC business to Chinese firm Lenovo for $1.25bn in a deal completed in May.
The first British-owned brand to appear on the list, HSBC, was the top gainer ranking at number 29, a huge 20% increase in brand value from $8.6bn in 2004 to value of $10.4bn this year.
This year's study is good news for online auction site eBay which is up 21% and Apple, which due to strong sales of the iPod has gained 16% in value since last year.
Other big gainers include Samsung which is up 16% and Dell and UBS up 15%.
Other firms to retain top 10 placings are GE in 4th place, Intel in 5th, Toyota and Marlboro in 9th and 10th. Nokia moved from 8th to 6th place due to a 10% leap in brand value while both Disney and McDonalds slipped one place each to move to 7th and 8th place respectively.
"The brands that rose to the top of this year's ranking all had widely varied arsenals and were able to unleash different campaigns for different consumers in different media almost simultaneously," Interbrand said.
New to the list is package delivery company UPS which is ranked 32nd and internet search engine Google at 38th. Other new entries include pharmaceutical research company, Novartis ranked 43, fashion retailer, Zara on 77 and Korean car manufacturer, Hyundai on 84.
Brands which lost the most ground include Sony which slipped 16% to 28th. To make matters worse rival Samsung surpassed the Japanese electronics company in rankings rising to 20th position, with a 186% surge in the past five years.
Morgan Stanley, Volkswagen and Hewlett-Packard were also down 15%, 12% and 10% respectively.
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