Apple Replaces Google As Top Global Brand
Has Google fallen from the brand Apple tree? The results for Brandchannel’s fourth annual Readers’ Choice Awards for brand of the year show that Google is now the sceond most popular brand behind the ipod-poppin’ Apple Computers. Other winners in this year’s top brands survey include Sony, Pixar, Ikea and Al Jazeera.
Google being bumped down a position by Apple after the search giant sat on top of the branding heap after two years was not the only surprise of the Brandchannel Awards. Al Jazeera, the Arab News Channel, made a first time ever addition to the hoursehold name list. “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,” said Brandchannel editor Robin Rusch.
Rusch 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.”
Apple designed, marketed and iPoded its way to become the Reader’s Choice for the brand with the most impact in 2004. Despite its public offering Google was bumped to second after winning the award for the last two consecutive years. The rankings for the top brands of 2004 are as follows:
1. Apple
2. Google
3. Ikea
4. Starbucks
5. Al Jazeera
Branding professionals from 75 countries cast 8,098 votes in the 2004 Readers’ Choice survey, which was conducted from November through December 2004.
