Page 310 - Foundations of Marketing

Product, Branding, and Packaging Concepts | Chapter 10 277

Table 10.2 The 10 Most Valuable Brands in the World

Rank Brand Brand Value ($ Millions)
1 Apple $ 185,071

2 Google 113,669

3 IBM 112,536
4 McDonald’s 90,256

5 Coca-Cola 78,415

6 AT&T 75,507
7 Microsoft 69,814

8 Marlboro 69,383

9 Visa 56,060
10 China Mobile 55,368

Source: WWP, Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2013, http://www.millwardbrown.com/brandz/2013/Top100/
Docs/2013_BrandZ_Top100_Chart.pdf (accessed July 22, 2013).

as aluminum foil) and do not include the company name or other identifying terms. Generic
brands usually are sold at lower prices than comparable branded items. Although at one time
generic brands may have represented as much as 10 percent of all retail grocery sales, today
they account for less than one-half of 1 percent.

Selecting a Brand Name

Marketers consider several factors in selecting a brand name. First, the name should be easy
for customers (including foreign buyers if the firm intends to market its products in other
countries) to say, spell, and recall. Short, one-syllable names, such as Cheer, often satisfy
this requirement. Second, the brand name should indicate the product’s major benefits and,
if possible, should suggest in a positive way the product’s uses and special characteristics;
negative or offensive references should be avoided. For example, the brand names of house-
hold cleaning products such as Ajax dishwashing liquid, Vanish toilet bowl cleaner, Formula
409 multipurpose cleaner, Cascade dishwasher detergent, and Wisk laundry detergent con-
note strength and effectiveness. There is evidence that consumers are more likely to recall
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and to evaluate favorably names that convey positive attributes or benefits. Third, to set it
apart from competing brands, the brand should be distinctive. Google, for example, renamed
its online services Blogger and Picasa to Google Blogs and Google Photos, respectively, in
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an effort to make all of the company’s products carry the same brand name. If a marketer
intends to use a brand for a product line, that brand must be compatible with all products in
the line. Finally, a brand should be designed so that it can be used and recognized in all types
of media. Finding the right brand name has become a challenging task because many obvious
product names have already been used.
How are brand names devised? Brand names can be created from single or mul-
tiple words—for example, Dodge Nitro. Letters and numbers are used to create such
brands as Volvo’s S 60 sedan or RIM’s BlackBerry Bold 9900 . Words, numbers, and let-
ters are combined to yield brand names, such as Motorola’s Droid X 2 phone or BMW’s
528 i xDrive sedan. To avoid terms that have negative connotations, marketers sometimes

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