World's 20 most valuable brands

Technology rules the roost in the brand game.

Seven of the top 10 brands and four of the five biggest risers in the Best Global Brands report are from the tech sector.

Brands are in the midst of adapting to a new reality due to the volatile markets and uncertain business climate in 2011, states Interbrand.

"Consistency, relevance and commitment are imperative if a brand is to keep pace in our rapidly changing world," Jez Frampton, global chief executive officer Interbrand said.

 Here's a list of the world's best global brands...

Coca-cola (Rank 1)
Brand value: $71,861 mn

Coca-Cola is the world's most valuable brand according to the Interbrand's 2011 Best Global Brands' study.

A global leader in the beverage industry, it is known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton.

Interbrand's annual report rates brands on factors like financial performance of the products, role of brand in the purchase decision process and strength of the brand to continue to secure earnings for a company.

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IBM (Rank 2)

Brand value: $69,905 mn

Founded in 1911, IBM is the second-largest publicly traded technology company in the world by market capitalisation. IBM showed a very strong performance this year.

IBM's performance is also a strong indicator that well-defined corporate strategies, like the company's smarter planet business strategy, can become very valuable business assets.

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Microsoft (Rank 3)

Brand value: $59,087 mn

Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems.

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Google (Rank 4)

Brand value: $55,317 mn

Overall technology brands dominated this year's list with internet giant taking the fourth place.

Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, google.com site is the Internet's most visited website.

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General Electric (Rank 5)

Brand value: $42,808 mn

The American multinational conglomerate, GE has been ranked by Fortune as the 6th largest firm in the US and the 14th most profitable company.

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McDonald's (Rank 6)

Brand value: $35,593 mn

Founded by businessman Ray Kroc in 1955, McDonald's Corporation is one of the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily.

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Intel (Rank 7)

Brand value: $35,217 mn

Intel designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world's computing devices. Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation.

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Apple (Rank 8)

Brand value: $33,492 mn

Apple zoomed to the 8th place with its brand value rising by 58 per cent. Apple is this year's top performer.

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Walt Disney (Rank 9)

Brand value: $29,018 mn

Founded in October 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry.

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Hewlett Packard (Rank 10)

Brand value: $28,479 mn

Established in a garage in Palo Alto by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939, H-P is one of the world's largest information technology companies, operating in nearly every country.

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Toyota (Rank 11)

Brand value: $27,764 mn

One of the world's largest automobile manufacturers, Toyota was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 as a spinoff from his father's company Toyota Industries to manufacture automobiles.

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Mercedes-Benz (Rank 12)

Brand value: $27,445 mn

A German manufacturer of automobiles, buses and trucks, Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG.

The name first appeared in 1926 but traces its origins to Daimler's 1901 Mercedes and to Karl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen.

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Cisco (Rank 13)

Brand value: $25,309 mn

Cisco Systems is a multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services.

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Nokia (Rank 14)

Brand value: $25,071 mn

Founded in Finland in 1865, Nokia had a dream run. It is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones: its global device market share was 23 per cent in the second quarter 2011.

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BMW (Rank 15)

Brand value: $24,554 mn

Bavarian Motor Works is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. In 2010, the BMW group produced 1,481,253 automobiles and 112,271 motorcycles across all its brands.

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Gilette (Rank 16)

Brand value: $23,997 mn

Introduced in 1855, Gillette is a brand of Procter & Gamble currently used for safety razors, among other personal care products.

The original Gillette Company was founded by King Camp Gillette in 1895 as a safety razor manufacturer.

 

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Samsung (Rank 17)

Brand value: $23,430 mn

South Korean multinational conglomerate has several businesses under the Samsung brand including Samsung Electronics, the world's largest technology company by sales.

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Louis Vuitton (Rank 18)

Brand value: $23,172 mn

Companies like Louis Vuitton saw their brand values increase this year. Founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton, Louis Vuitton is one of the world's leading international fashion houses.

Each of these luxury brands focuses on quality, craftsmanship and digital brand strategy, says Interbrand.

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Honda (Rank 19)

Brand value: $19,431 mn

Founded in 1948, Japanese multinational corporation Honda manufactures automobiles and motorcycles. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959.

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Oracle (Rank 20)

Brand value: $17,262 mn

Founded in 1977, American multinational technology corporation specialises in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products.