Google, Starbucks and Motorola, they are all brands easily recognizable around the world and getting even more so according to a new survey of the top 100 global brands. Of All, tech companies seem to be gaining dominance, Coca Cola still holds the number 1 spot. Microsoft is number 2, and IBM comes in at number 3. BusinessWeek and Interbrands team up annually to determine these rankings, and joining us now to discuss them is Interbrands' Chief Executive John Allert.

John, thanks for being here. Very briefly, what is the criteria?

The criteria is that we need brands that have strong franchise with consumers, but importantly, businesses underlying those brands that have very large amounts of revenue.

Large amounts of revenue, so basically you look at, dah, numerically, and just the, the list unfolds?

Well, it's a combination of numerical factors and, and more soft marketing factors, so we look at the degree of resonance that the consumers have with a particular brand proposition, and that allows us to actually discount from an entire group of earnings, how many of those earnings are attributable to the brand?

Let's, let's take a look at some of these. Coca Cola, for instance, because it's, it is more than just a brand. I think for a lot of people, it almost has a certain nostalgia.

Yeah, look, Coke is, uh, Coke is obviously famous for a proposition around refreshment. What Coke's been able to do very cleverly is, is take that through generations, but also take it through different ethnographies and through different market demographics. So the people all around the world buy into the Coke proposition.

Microsoft, a lot of people, of course, hate Microsoft, you know, because they feel that it's, you know, monopolistic and so on and so forth. Yet, it runs most of the software for computers (Well, Micr..) or has the software that runs most of computers.

Mi, Microsoft is a good lesson and I'm not sure whether people hate Microsoft, I mean Microsoft is great.

Well, a percentage of people do, I mean, you know, (Of course, of course) a lot of anti-competitive practices and so forth. I am not expressing an opinion here, but, you know, talk to somebody who has an Apple computer for instance.

Sure, as I have had. Microsoft actually has a fantastic product underneath its brand, and, and of course without a fantastic product you can't build a valuable brand. Er, and we've seen that through, uh, through some of the great er, rises in the table this year with, with the likes of eBay which has a fantastic product, the likes of Google which has a fantastic product.

It really does come down to the functionality of the product.

Well, it's not just the functionality, it's about delivering on the promise and, and brands obviously, uh, are promoted to build a promise to consumers and, and if they continuously deliver on that promise, people will go back again and again, er, and build loyalty with those brands.

Why do you think some companies've been so successful at, at building a brand, be it Coca cola, Microsoft, Google, Starbucks which is another one of your top er, names, and some aren't able to do it.

Well, I guess product, as I said, is, is critical, but a number of these, a number of these brand markets have been around for a long long time.

Let, let me, let me just go back, you say product is critical. Now, Starbucks would say their coffee is certainly different than what you'll get er, from one of the competitors. But the basic coffee is not that different, so there is some atmosphere that's also created or some perception that's created that makes people want to buy this brand.

Sure, I, I guess, what I, I mean by product is that is an entry-level criteria. If you don't have a good product, you can't build a strong brand. So in, in the case of Starbucks, what they have been able to do is build an emotional base on top of that product that people have brought into and understand Starbucks has been something more than just functional coffee.

John Allert, chief executive of Interbrands, as always, thanks for your answers.

Pleasure, Todd.

1. demographics:n.人口統(tǒng)計資料(如年齡、性別、收入等等)