The South Korean firm Samsung, which has been featured heavily this year on television screens on the back of its association with the 'Matrix Reloaded' movie, recorded a 31% surge in brand value to $10.85bn (拢6.7bn), putting it 25th on the 2003 Business Week/Interbrand rankings of the world's 100 most valuable brands.
The number one spot was held by Coca-Cola for the fifth year in a row. Its brand value stands at a whopping $70.45bn, up on last year by around 1%.
Coca-Cola held on to the number one spot in a year that has seen a wave of anti-Americanism spread around the world, fuelled by the war in Iraq. Despite this, US brands dominate, holding not just 62 places on the list, but including eight of the top 10 spots.
The top 10 remained entirely unchanged from last year.
1. Coca-Cola
2. Microsoft
3. IBM
4. General Electric Company
5. Intel
6. Nokia
7. Disney
8. McDonald's
9. Marlboro
10. Mercedes
The Interbrand/Business Week study analyses how much the brand drives sales and from this works out the value of the brand. It takes into consideration factors such as market leadership and international market presence.
Alongside Samsung, other brands to show major improvements were: Toyota; HP, which rose 18%; German software firm SAP, which rose 14%; Dell, up 12%; and L'Oreal, up 10%. The only casualty on the list was US telecoms giant AT&T, which fell off the list entirely.
Other brand suffering setbacks, but managing to stay in the top 100 were: Reuters, down 28%; Kodak, down 19%; Ford, down 16%; Ericsson, down 12%; and Pizza Hut, off by 12 %.
According to Business Week, the brand suffering the biggest falls were less the victims of a political climate than of problems with quality issues, poorly targeted products, or other core business problems.
"Some, such as Levi's and McDonald's are racking up higher sales growth overseas than at home. The names that dominate the roster, such as top-ranked Coke and number two Microsoft, are global players that rise above the noise of political dissent to appeal to consumers everywhere," the magazine said.
The magazine said that at the same time, American marketers have worked hard to instil their products with American values, which it says are "still attractive overseas".
"I think the core values of Levi's -- democracy, freedom, independence -- certainly are viewed as the best of America and its virtues," Levi Strauss CEO Philip A Marineau said.
The magazine puts Nike in this category, saying the global sports shoe brand has overcome anti-Americanism by appealing to shared values through its "Just do it" message of individual achievement, which it says appeals just as much to kids in Jakarta as it does in Jefferson City, Missouri.
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