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Coca-Cola has been named the world's top brand for a fourth consecutive year in a survey by consultancy Interbrand, the British Broadcasting Corporation, has said.
Coca-Cola has been named the world's top brand for a fourth consecutive year in a survey by consultancy Interbrand, the British Broadcasting Corporation, has said.
It estimated that the United Coca-Cola's brand was worth $67.5bn (£39bn; 55bn euros). US firms dominated the top 10 and made up more than half of those listed.
The biggest non-United States company was Finnish mobile phone group, Nokia, at number six, valued at $26.5bn.
Only five United Kingdom names made it into the top 100, with banking group HSBC ranked the highest at 29 and worth $10.1bn.
The other UK firms to make a showing were news and information company Reuters at 74, oil giant BP at 75, Diageo-owned vodka label Smirnoff at 88, and petroleum firm Shell at 90.
All five of the UK brands managed to boost their value - HSBC increased the most with a 20per cent gain.
Interbrand's survey showed that little has changed in the top five since 2001.
Qualifying for the list is tough, with US supermarket giant Wal-Mart, payment card group Visa and confectionery firm Mars all missing out on a place.
That was because they failed to qualify in at least one of the following criteria:
The brand value must be worth at least $2.1billion.
It must derive at least a third of its income outside of its domestic market.
Its marketing and financial data must be publicly available.
Despite the status quo at the top of the tree, interesting global developments could be seen lower down the rankings
Evidence of Asia's increasing power as a carmaker saw Japan's Toyota increase its brand value by 10 per cent to $24.8bn.
US rival Ford only managed to feature at 22 in the list, slipping two places from last year - in 2001 it was placed at number eight.
Elsewhere, several new companies managed to push into the top 100, including delivery group UPS, Internet search engine Google, drugs firm Novartis, Spanish fashion chain Zara, vehicle maker Hyundai, luxury goods company Bulgari and electronics group LG.
The PUNCH, Wednesday, July 27, 2005