The Real Thing in Brand Power Is Coke, Global Survey Shows : Marketing: Consumers rated product symbols on familiarity and esteem. The rankings are important because firms can tout them in ads.

By BRUCE HOROVITZ

Sept. 13, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Coke is it. But Pepsi isn’t--the world’s most powerful brand, that is.

At least, that’s the conclusion of a survey of 9,000 consumers from America, Europe and Japan by Landor Associates, a San Francisco corporate identity firm. Sony ranked No. 2, and Mercedes-Benz rated third.

Pepsi placed 10th. And--no surprise here--among consumers in the Western United States, Disney rated No. 1.

So, who cares? Plenty of marketing executives do. Rivals such as Coke and Pepsi can use surveys such as this to try to win new business--anything from orders from a tiny grocer in southern France to those from a major fast-food chain.

Marketing executives say brand awareness is among the most vital of all sales tools. What’s more, as brands such as Pepsi and McDonald’s (which ranked eighth worldwide) try to gain greater acceptance throughout the world, the brands that people use give them something in common.

“A person in Los Angeles is similar to a person in Tokyo because of the brands they use,” said Carlton Curtis, vice president of communications at Coca-Cola Co. “The two people might not speak the same language, but they may both drink Coke and use Sony Walkmans while listening to the same Madonna tape.”

The “Image Power” survey evaluated 6,000 brands. Each consumer was asked to make two ratings on each of 800 brands--a rating on the basis of familiarity with the brand and a rating on the basis of regard for the brand. The combination of the two ratings helped determine the most “powerful” brands. Those participating in the survey included 5,000 consumers from America, 3,000 from Europe and 1,000 from Japan.

For those who think that patriotism is dead, bear in mind that American-made brands were consistently ranked tops by the American consumers surveyed. In fact, the Top 20 brands picked by Americans are all made by American firms.

“The warm, fuzzy, non-glitzy brands seem to be playing best in America,” said Don Casey, president and chief executive of Landor. The company came up with the name for Disney’s Touchstone Pictures several years ago, and most recently created the graphic identity for General Motors’ new Saturn division.

Corporate image experts generally agree, however, that most successful brands can no longer focus on making it big in just one country. “There are still very few global brands,” said Alan Siegel, chairman of Siegel & Gale Inc., a New York-based corporate identity firm. “But as the world closes in, we are seeing the emergence of the need for the true global brand.”

Why did Coca-Cola rate better globally than Pepsi? “I’d say Coke has understood the essence of its product and communicated that image worldwide,” said Casey. “Pepsi has taken a number of different marketing approaches--and that rarely works.”

Of course, Coca-Cola also happens to be a longtime Landor client. Coke also ranked No. 1 in a similar--but less ambitious--survey the company did in 1988. Landor executives strongly deny that the company’s working relationship with Coke tainted the survey results. They point out that only two of the companies in the Top 10 are clients.

Pepsi is hardly pleased with the results. “We don’t take anything lightly when it comes to consumer preferences,” said Leigh Curtain, manager of public relations at Pepsi-Cola Co. “You have to look at the methodology used in this survey--which is a mystery to us.”

Several companies that suffered bad press the past year also did poorly in the survey. Of the 2,000 firms in the survey, American consumers ranked Exxon 444th in familiarity and 1,446th in esteem. Similarly, Perrier, which suffered a contamination scare earlier this year, ranked a lowly 1,396th in esteem. Both companies declined to comment.

In Europe, where Exxon is sold under the Esso brand name, the company ranked 20th in familiarity and 42nd in esteem. “Esso is not branded with almost having destroyed the coast of the state of Alaska,” said a Landor executive who asked not to be named. “Exxon is.”

WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL BRAND NAMES

1. Coca-Cola

2. Sony

3. Mercedes-Benz

4. Kodak

5. Disney

6. Nestle

7. Toyota

8. McDonald’s

9. IBM

10. Pepsi-Cola

Source: Landor ImagePower Survey