Global study validates four key attributes to measuring and building corporate brand strength; uncovers ‘stakebrokers’ as new set of highly engaged influencers.
Washington, D.C., January 24, 2013 -(ASIA TODAY) – APCO Worldwide today announced the 50 companies that top its Champion Brand Index, a first-of-its-kind global study that measures the brand strength of nearly 600 of the world’s largest public and private companies. The ground-breaking study identifies those brands that are performing best against a new proprietary approach for evaluating and building corporate brands.
“Champion Brands are those companies that have best aligned their business strategy, vision and values with the shared interests of their stakeholders,” said Margery Kraus, founder and CEO of APCO Worldwide. “It’s clear that having quality products or services is no longer enough. Today’s most successful brands – Champion Brands – are creating enduring relationships with their stakeholders by creating societal value while also delivering corporate value.”
A CORPORATE BRAND-BUILDING MODEL FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The study, conducted by APCO Insight®, surveyed more than 70,000 people in 15 countries. The study measures how companies perform against a new model, the four A’s that make up Champion Brand, which provides a 21st-century framework for building corporate brands:
• Alignment: meeting stakeholders’ most important expectations
• Authenticity: acting in a way that is consistent with what a company says
• Attachment: the extent to which stakeholders connect emotionally with a company
• Advocacy: advocating on behalf of stakeholders’ interests, applying unique expertise and assets to add value to society
“The study demonstrated that excellence on each attribute is increasingly difficult to achieve, but as companies advance through each dimension they do more than simply build product brand value,” said Bryan Dumont, president of APCO Insight. “Companies that perform well against all of the four As move from being good corporate brands to becoming Champion Brands, and Champion Brands are winning in this new environment.”
“This model is truly a branding blueprint -- it gives companies an actionable roadmap to building their corporate brands,” said Nancy Bachrach, a global branding strategist and former chief marketing officer of Grey Worldwide.
MEET THE “STAKEBROKER”
The research also discovered a new set of influencers called stakebrokers, a group of highly engaged individuals who act and think in ways that differentiate them from traditional influencers. Stakebrokers engage with companies from the perspective of, and with the interests of, all of the different traditional stakeholder groups simultaneously: consumers, community members, environmentalists, policy influencers, employees and investors. From their 360-degree view, stakebrokers are highly engaged and influential individuals and broker information and influence to both the masses and elites.
“Stakebrokers are fully invested in the success of companies, and connecting with stakebrokers is a company’s surest path to becoming a Champion Brand,” said Robert Schooling, president of APCO’s Americas region. “In terms of future-proofing a corporate brand, these are the people – generationally and geographically – to whom the company needs to pay attention.”
“Audiences worldwide increasingly expect companies to contribute to positive social change,” concluded Kraus. “And corporate leaders now recognize they are an essential part of the societies in which they operate – essential for what they bring to the market, for the economic and social value they bring to the community and for how they can help transform the social and environmental challenges of our time.”
THE TOP CHAMPION BRANDS
The Champion Brand index rankings demonstrate how a company is viewed in meeting stakeholder expectations for the 4As and how close a company is to achieving Champion Brand status.
Below are the top 50 Global Champion Brands the study identified, in alphabetical order:
3M
Adobe Systems
Amazon.com
Apple
Bayer Group
BMW Group
Canon
Caterpillar
Colgate-Palmolive
Costco Wholesale
Deere & Co
Dell
Discovery Communications
Ford Motor
Google
Hershey
Hewlett-Packard
HJ Heinz
Home Depot
Honda Motor
HTC
IBM
IKEA
Intel
Johnson & Johnson Kellogg
Levi Strauss & Co
LG
MasterCard
Michelin Group
Microsoft
Nestlé
NIKE
Panasonic
PepsiCo
Philips
Procter & Gamble
Samsung
SC Johnson & Son
Sharp
Siemens
Sony
Stanley Black & Decker
The Coca-Cola Company
Toyota Group
Visa
Volkswagen Group
Walt Disney
Whirlpool
Yahoo
More information about Champion Brand, along with detailed results of APCO’s Champion Brand Index, is available at www.apcoworldwide.com/champion.
Contact
Brian Carroll
+86.10.6505.5127
bcarroll@apcoworldwide.com
About APCO
Founded in 1984, APCO Worldwide is an independent global communication, stakeholder engagement and business strategy firm with offices in more than 30 major cities throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. We challenge conventional thinking and inspire movements to help our clients succeed in an ever-changing world. Stakeholders are at the core of all we do. We turn the insights that come from our deep stakeholder relationships into forward-looking, creative solutions that always push the boundaries. APCO clients include large multinational companies, trade associations, governments, NGOs and educational institutions. The firm is a majority women-owned business. For more information, please visit www.apcoworldwide.com.