Red Bull tops brand value ranking
Red Bull has been identified as the strongest Austrian brand in the world.
The beverages producer – which has increasingly engaged in multimedia promotion and the funding and organisation of sporting events – came top in the latest Eurobrand Austria study.
The European Brand Institute (EBI) said today (Thurs) Red Bull increased its brand value by 11.9 per cent from 2009 to 2010 to 13.4 billion Euros. Tyrolean crystals producer Swarovski came second with 3.8 billion Euros, up by 12 per cent.
Telekom Austria (TA) – one of the leading providers of mobile services in Central and Southeast Europe – reached third place ahead of Raiffeisenzentralbank (RZB) / Raiffeisen International (RI) and Novomatic, a leading producer of slot machines. Novomatic – which also runs casinos in Austria and abroad – managed the biggest year on year increase. Its brand value soared by 13 per cent, according to EBI.
EBI considered all firms in which Austrian individuals or businesses hold a stake of at least 45 per cent.
Red Bull not only topped the EBI’s 2010 ranking. The company also performed strongly in the most recent Universum Student Survey. Magazine profil reports that 24.6 per cent of interviewed Austrian business sciences students named the firm as their most preferred future employer. Global internet giant Google (12.7 per cent) came second ahead of the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) with a share of 11.3 per cent and German car companies BMW (11.1 per cent) and Audi (10.4 per cent).
Red Bull reached fourth place among engineering and IT students in Austria in the 2011 edition of the poll. Google topped the ranking ahead of US American company Microsoft and the Austrian branch of German IT and heath sector firm Siemens.
More than 5,400 students were questioned by Swedish consulting firm Universum.
News that Red Bull retained its reputation as the most valuable Austrian brand on the planet comes shortly after a German newspaper claimed firm chief Dietrich Mateschitz met bosses of Facebook and YouTube to discuss possible ways to cooperate. Die Zeit reported that the billionaire flew to the United States to speak with decision-makers of the booming internet companies. He can reportedly imagine merging the acclaimed mobile contents Red Bull already provides with the services of Facebook and YouTube. However, Mateschitz is also understood being ready to launch a Red Bull social networking platform to challenge the global dominance of Facebook.
Red Bull sold four billion cans of its established energy drink in the world in 2010. The company came 82nd in a study on the world’s most powerful brands by international market research agency Millward Brown in the same year. Google was ranked at the top followed by computer and laptop manufacturer IBM and leading smartphone producer Apple. Millward Brown estimated Red Bull’s value as 8.9 billion Euros, up from 8.2 billion Euros in 2009. The Salzburg-based firm dropped three places in the overall ranking but stayed in fourth place in the global soft drinks sector listing. No other Austrian company made Millward Brown’s top 100.