July 15th, 2008
Hot on the heels of being named this year’s top superbrand, Google has once again topped the list of the world’s most powerful brands in the latest annual Brandz survey of 50,000 worldwide firms. With a brand value worth $86.1 billion, the internet search giant fought off competition from GE ($71.4b) and Microsoft ($70.9b) amongst others.
The Top 10 Brands are:
| Position |
Company |
Brand Value ($m) |
| 1 |
Google |
86,057 |
| 2 |
GE |
71,379 |
| 3 |
Microsoft |
70,887 |
| 4 |
Coca-Cola |
58,208 |
| 5 |
China Mobile |
57,225 |
| 6 |
IBM |
55,335 |
| 7 |
Apple |
55,206 |
| 8 |
McDonald’s |
49,499 |
| 9 |
Nokia |
43,975 |
| 10 |
Marlboro |
37,324 |
But it’s not just Google that has something to celebrate. The trend shows that brands are continuing to grow more powerful, highlighted in no small part by the fact that the combined value of the top 100 brands has increased since last year by 21% to $1.94 trillion.
Eight of the top 10 brands are American, with Chinese telecommunications powerhouse China Mobile taking fifth spot. The highest ranking UK brand is Vodafone at number 11.
Since these companies, which have all invested in creating strong brands, are growing in strength in spite of testing market conditions, it demonstrates clearly the importance that branding can play.
Of course the above is just one measure of the effectiveness of branding - as we will see later in the week, branding also has much to do with the positive and negative feelings we attach to companies and their products. In other words, whether we love or hate a brand.
More information about branding can be found in the following white papers:
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July 14th, 2008
You guessed it! It’s time for the latest chapter of our e-book: Questionnaire Design by Paul Hague!
This week’s chapter discusses “Framing the questions” and focuses on how questions are presented to respondents. The chapter also highlights the importance of how questions are worded, and the impact that their wordings have on a questionnaire.
To download Chapter 6, please click on the appropriate links below:
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July 10th, 2008
In the week where Britain’s National Health Service has been celebrating its diamond jubilee, Bhavika Hira, operations manager of B2B International’s medical market research division, reflects on the divergence of public opinion over this national institution.
A few years ago I turned up at my GP’s surgery in time for my 3.30pm appointment, only to be told by the receptionist that she was unable to let me through to the doctor for the time-being since her computer, which showed the names of everyone who had booked an appointment, had just crashed.
On another occasion, when the printer printing out my prescription jammed, my GP told me in frustration that: “all the extra NHS funding that the public is forever hearing about goes into computers, not into more doctors or better patient facilities”. Yet, few people would argue that, in general, computers and advances in technology do not benefit our lives tremendously.
Some colleagues of mine have recently moved from the UK to America to work in the B2B International USA office. The United States offers some of the best healthcare facilities in the world, but not everyone can benefit from them. Without adequate medical insurance in the US, you will struggle to even get seen by a doctor. So, do we in Britain, who all have the right to receive ‘free at the point of delivery’ healthcare, actually just take our National Health Service for granted?
This week the NHS has been celebrating its 60th birthday. Since its conception in 1948, the NHS has continually found itself in the headlines. The media makes dramas out of it and politicians come to blows over it. Yet, fundamentally and crucially, we should not forget that the British public relies on it.
The NHS treats one million patients every 36 hours and employs 1.5 million staff. Once a pioneer its field, the NHS now comes in for criticism on a regular basis – from the cleanliness of hospitals, to the salary of GPs, to the length of hospital waiting lists. Yet we shouldn’t forget that there has been a huge amount to celebrate since 1948: DNA discovery, transplant surgery and test-tube babies to name but a few.
My medical market research team is immersed in the NHS. We speak to doctors and other healthcare specialists all day, every day. By doing this, we get a wide range of views on a whole array of different disease areas and different aspects of our healthcare system. But that’s the fascinating thing about what we do – we are always discovering interesting and relevant information, and most people have a something to say, whether good or bad.
To find out more about our medical market research services, visit www.b2bmedical.co.uk
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July 8th, 2008
Market research specialists B2B International have welcomed over 1,000 employees during their 10 years, with Leah Fletcher (pictured above) being the lucky 1000th.
Peter Mullarkey, operations manager at B2B International’s UK office says:
We’re delighted to have reached this milestone. More than 1,000 people have now worked for B2B since its inception in 1998. This includes the consultants in our research team and those working in the telephone interviewing unit. There’s certainly always a lot going on here!
Whilst there are a large proportion of English-speaking interviewers, B2B also employs people of many nationalities with up to 35 languages being spoken amongst the staff at any one time. This, in no small part, is due to the international nature of many of the projects that B2B conducts.
Director and co-founder Nick Hague says:
This multi-national aspect is why so many clients commission us. We talk to people all over the world, and the differing time zones means the phone unit is often busy 24 hours a day!
With the opening of a Beijing office 18 months ago and a New York branch having opened in June, Peter says constant expansion means B2B that is always looking out for additional staff:
The B2B phone unit is thriving. Work is quite flexible, which suits many people, and also very varied – short interviews, longer in-depth conversations, through to focus groups. We‘re a happy and dedicated team…and the provision of a tea trolley also proves highly popular, as well as helping lubricate their voices whilst interviewing!
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July 7th, 2008
It’s a Monday, which can mean only one thing - Time for the next installment(s) of our e-book: Questionnaire Design by Paul Hague!
This week we’ve two chapters on offer: Chapter Four deals with the "Fundamental Principles of Questionnaire Design", and offers 8 golden rules to bear in mind when framing the questionnaire. The chapter concludes that above all else, it is the respondent that should be front-of-mind when crafting a questionnaire, since they are the ones who ultimately need to understand the questions being asked and the purpose of the study in the first place.
Chapter Five, entitled "Different Types of Questions" looks in further detail at the different question formats that can be utilised in a questionnaire. This section seeks to clarify where each question type is best used, according to the over-arching research objectives and the information that’s being sought.
To download Chapters 4 and 5, please click on the appropriate links below:
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