Interbrand recently published its ranking of the top 100 brands
for 2011. Coca-Cola was once again ranked as the world's most
valuable brand, with an attributed value of $71.8 billion. The top
7 brands were unchanged from last year's ranking. These are
Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, Google, GE, McDonald's and Intel
with values of between $35 billion and $71 billion.
Brands serve a variety of functions including identifying
origin, and thus distinguishing a brand owner's goods or
services from those of another, and serving as a stamp of quality.
These valuable intangible assets, and other forms of intellectual
property, can, however, perform various other functions which are
financially beneficial to the proprietor of the brand.
