The world's top 5 beverage brands

Five beverage brands are in the overall 2012 Global Top 100 Brandz survey from Millward Brown Optimor.

Apple, IBM and Google are the first three, all with brand values over $100bn. The top beverages are three soft drinks, one coffee and one beer.

The Top 5

• (6) Coca-Cola – Value: $74,286m.
• (42) Starbucks – Value: $17,072m.
• (48) Budweiser – Value: $15,882m.
• (67) Pepsi – Value: $12,598.
• (80) Red Bull – Value: $9,984m.

This shows remarkable strength and resilience in the brand leaders. It also reflects the huge appreciation that consumers feel for some of the extra pleasures in their daily lives.

Red Bull's ranking is the one that most caught my eye. Launched only in 1987 and not even being seriously exported until 1993, the brand is now worth more than Nissan, Citi and Sony. This demonstrates the potential of functionality in food and drink, and I believe more will follow.

Richard Hall is chairman of Zenith International

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