Coca Cola on Top of ‘Best Brands’ Harris Poll.

Coca Cola continues its rise as it moves into the top position of the annual Harris Poll of “best brands” for the first time and rises from No. 3 last year. Sony, which had been in the top position for seven straight years, drops one spot to No. 2, while Toyota, previously in the fourth position, moves up to No. 3. Dell, which had been in the second spot last year drops two spots to No. 4 this year.

These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,372 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive between June 5 and 11, 2007. Survey responses were unaided and a list of brand names was not presented to respondents. The results from this survey cannot be compared to results of the Harris Interactive 2007 EquiTrend Brand Study results, as the methodologies for the surveys differ.

The other places on the top-10 list of best brands are taken by Ford (No. 5), Kraft Foods (No. 6), Pepsi Cola (No. 7), Microsoft (No. 8), Apple (No. 9) and Honda (No. 10). Two brands dropped out of this list this year, Hewlett Packard (was No. 7) and General Electric (No. 8).

“Top of mind association with being “best” is a good position for any brand,” said Robert Fronk, Senior Vice President, Brand and Strategy Consulting, Harris Interactive. “For a truly successful brand relationship though, the objective is not just awareness, but to foster the ongoing process and outcome of brand engagement, which requires more custom and sophisticated measures based upon the interaction of the brand and its desired audience.”

Analysis By Industry

Three industries are represented on this year’s list. Four of the companies are from the Electronics industry, while three are each from Autos and Consumer and Package Goods.

Changes Since Last Year

Most of the brands in this year’s Top 10 list have not moved up or down substantially. The most notable changes are Honda, falling from No. 6 to No. 10 and Kraft Foods which rose from No. 9 to No. 6.

A Decade Ago…

One interesting thing to note is the changes from 1997 and what a difference ten years makes. Only four of this year’s top ten brands were on the list back then: Ford (which was No. 1), Sony (which was No. 3), Coca-Cola (which was No. 7) and Pepsi Cola (which was No. 10).

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