Best Brands – The German Brand Ranking 2014
– 8 points –
– 9 points –
– 13 points –
– 15 points –
– 45 (out of 60) –
points
points
points
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- Global, e.g. North America, Europe and Asia (5 points)
- Regional, e.g. Europe or North America (3 points)
- Large national market: e.g. US, China, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Brazil (2 points)
- Mid-sized or small market, e.g. Switzerland, Netherlands, Argentina, Singapore (1 point)
Ranking will be recognized by key stakeholders:
- Opinion Leaders (Politicians, Professors; NGO’s) (2 points)
- Business Advisory Board, C-Level Executives (CEO, CCO, CFO, CMO) (2 points)
- High Potentials & Top Talents (employer market, students) (2 points)
- Financial Market (2 points)
- General Public (2 points)
Aggregated points: 8 (of max. 15)
- Ranking owner has limited credibility and reputation. (1 point)
- Ranking owner has fair credibility and reputation. (3 points)
- Ranking owner has excellent credibility and reputation. (5 points)
Comment: The Ranking is published by a broad set of players.
What is the ranking owner’s intention to produce and disseminate the ranking?
- Ranking is predominantly a tool to raise awareness for the owner with the possible intention to sell consultancy services. (1 point)
- Ranking is partly a tool to raise awareness for the owner with the possible intention to sell consultancy services. (3 points)
- Ranking is predominantly a tool to surface and share important insights on the subject surveyed. (5 points)
Is/Are the media outlet(s) where the ranking is published of high credibility and reputation?
- Media outlet(s) has/have limited credibility and reputation. (1 point)
- Media outlet(s) has/have fair credibility and reputation. (3 points)
- Media outlet(s) has/have excellent credibility and reputation. (5 points)
Comment: Wirtschaftswoche is the most important economic weekly in Germany.
Aggregated points: 13 (of max. 15)
- limited orientation only (1 point)
- fair orientation provided (3 points)
- very good orientation (5 points)
Is the Ranking published in the same format on a regular basis, e.g. annually, which allows to track developments and comparisons over time?
- ranking is published for the first time (1 point)
- ranking is published for the second time in the same format (3 points)
- ranking is published for more than 3 times on a regular basis in the same format (5 points)
Comment: Ranking was published for the 11th time in 2014.
Do the ranking results provide added value and further insights on how companies are evaluated in in their industry, e.g. detailed ratings in various sub-dimensions of the overall result?
- limited added value only (1 point)
- fair amount of added value (3 points)
- high amount of added value (5 points)
Aggregated points: 9 (of max. 15)
- Ranking is based on a jury’s opinion only. (1 point)
- Ranking is based on a small survey or only on a limited group of stakeholders. (3 points)
- Ranking is based on a robust and representative survey. (5 points)
Is the ranking methodology easy to understand and reasonable – even for non-statisticians?
- Methodology not easy to understand and not reasonable. (1 point)
- Methodology fairly good to understand and reasonable. (3 points)
- Methodology very easy to understand and reasonable. (5 points)
Is the ranking methodology easy to access and transparent?
- Methodology not easy to find and not sufficiently transparent. (1 point)
- Methodology fairly good to find and of medium transparency. (3 points)
- Methodology very easy to find and of high transparency. (5 points)
Aggregated points: 15 (of max. 15)
- Product / Service Brands
- Company Brands
- Corporate Reputation and Company Esteem
- Social Responsibility, CSR & Sustainability, Ethical Business Practices
- Innovation & Technology
- Employer Attractiveness & Diversity
- Leadership
- Nations & Destinations
- University & Other Institutions
- Sports
- Lifestyle
- Social Media
- Personal Branding & CEOs
Ranking statistics
- Name of Ranking: Best Brands - Ther German Brand Ranking
- Ranking managed/produced by institute/organization: Serviceplan/GfK
- Ranking published by media outlet: Wirtschaftswoche
- Date of recent publication: February 5, 2014
- Date of previous publication: February 6, 2013
While limited in its relevance as the Best Brands Ranking only covers Germany (and this year for the first time the “guest country” China) we think it is worth taking a closer look on this ranking because its methodology is quite interesting.
Best Brands is a yearly study of Germany’s strongest corporate and product brands. Biannually it also examines how strong Germany’s brands are internationally. The methodology is a mixture of numeric figures, e.g. awareness respective familiarity of consumers with the brand, market share etc. with a representative study of the “share of soul” of the brands carried out by the market research institute GfK. The biannual international study covers representative data of 6 countries from the US, Brazil, China, Russia, France and Germany. While the whole setup of the ranking is pretty strong, it is a pity that the only result published is a pure ranking without any hints that would explain the results.
Still this approach bears a commendable way to set up a brand ranking and it would be very interesting to the initiators extending this ranking internationally.