by Becky Sun
In mid-September, Interbrand will come out with its annual ranking of Best Global Brands for the year. If the past is any indication, familiar names like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nokia and Google will place in the top 10.
At Iconoculture, Global View does something similar yet radically different. We reach out to our on-the-ground Cultural Fluents to tease out which brands are resonating with consumers — and why. Which campaigns are working? Who’s buying into the message? What’s behind the consumer buzz about certain products?
The responses have been surprising. Of the countries that Global View covers, some of the brands are familiar: Tata Motors, Uniqlo and Nespresso. But most of the other best brand practices are products unique to that country or region.
Take, for example, Hipp in Germany. This respected maker of organic baby food has successfully branched out to target a fast-growing population that needs nutritious, soft and convenient meals: seniors. Kimberly Ochs, our Fluent in Germany, writes, “About a quarter of those who eat Hipp’s 100 varieties of pureed and pulped organic meals, like Mediterranean ratatouille with gnocchi, are adults.”
Of the 17 best brand practices, the common denominator is not the brands’ global reach or profit margin. Rather, they’re innovators and risk takers in their categories — many of them with a strong sustainable bent — that click with consumers’ core values.
