In today's quiz we celebrate the Season of Consumption with a quiz that tests your knowledge of the exciting world of...brands!
The "brand consultant" company Interbrand assigns a "brand value" to companies and their branded products. As of their most recent published rankings, the top four brands in terms of global value were all wielded by U.S.-based corporations: Coca-Cola, Microsoft Windows,IBM, and Intel.
Number 5, however, is not a U.S.-based company (though its products are widely available here as well as elsewhere).
What is the name and country of origin of the No. 5 Most Valuable Brand?
First correct answer to comments wins my copy of the now outdated The Top 10 of Everything 2002. One guess per comment, please. No Googling, waffling, pandering, needling, wheedling, or malingering.
A note to the dedicated: Next week at this time I will be zipping between the glorious metropoli of the Northwest -- Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon, high on strong coffee and the smell of freshly clear-cut woodlands. The Quiz will return on Friday, January 4, 2003.
Posted by BT at December 20, 2002 09:01 AMSony?
Posted by: bootsy on December 20, 2002 09:42 AMToyota.
Posted by: Rory on December 20, 2002 09:44 AMMake that 'Toyota, Japan'.
Posted by: Rory on December 20, 2002 09:45 AMNope and nope.
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 09:45 AMGodiva?
Posted by: bootsy on December 20, 2002 09:57 AM(Switzerland, i think)
Posted by: bootsy on December 20, 2002 09:58 AMoh! Chanel! Paris!
(last post, i swear. Enjoy those West Coast Wombat Pellets!)
nein. non. no. (Switzerland does use three languages, right?)
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 10:00 AMI listened closely to Bible guy this morning as I came up out of the Metro, and I think that the answer is "Satan"
Posted by: Scott on December 20, 2002 10:01 AMUnilever, the Netherlands?
Posted by: Scott on December 20, 2002 10:35 AMMercedes Benz?
This is weird - my boss told me about a year ago that some official study determined that the most valuable brand name was "Harley-Davidson."
I guess it's not that weird - it just confirms that it's all so much bunk.
Posted by: boxjam on December 20, 2002 10:35 AMBunk, but entertaining bunk.
Not Mercedes Benz, nor Unilever.
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 10:44 AMOh, and not Chanel, in case that wasn't clear earlier. But an interesting guess.
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 10:52 AMHint - this is not a "classic" brand like Coca Cola, Benz, or Chanel.
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 10:52 AMVirgin
Posted by: boxjam on December 20, 2002 11:07 AMGood guess, but no.
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 11:09 AMYamaha - Japan
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 11:44 AMBMW - Germany
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 11:47 AMBenetton - Italy
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 11:49 AMBP - B
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 12:06 PMWombatfile - Australia
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 12:11 PMNintendo
Posted by: boxjam on December 20, 2002 12:11 PMBBC?
Posted by: bootsy on December 20, 2002 12:17 PMBBC?
Posted by: bootsy on December 20, 2002 12:17 PMSpeaking of wombats... I'll assume I'm late to the party but I just ran across the expression "wrestling a wombat" http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/WOMBAT.html" in the jargonfile:
[acronym: Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time] Applied to problems which are both profoundly uninteresting in themselves and unlikely to benefit anyone interesting even if solved. Often used in fanciful constructions such as `wrestling with a wombat'. See also crawling horror, SMOP. Also note the rather different usage as a metasyntactic variable in Commonwealth Hackish.
The Rolling Stones.
Posted by: boxjam on December 20, 2002 12:37 PMHello Kitty, Japan?
Posted by: Scott on December 20, 2002 12:38 PMTrent Lott, CSA?
Posted by: Scott on December 20, 2002 12:38 PMNestlé, Switzerland
The Wiggles - Australia
Oh, the're big alrighty.
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 12:57 PMSomeone wake Bill.
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 12:58 PMHonda - Japan
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 01:01 PMBertelsmann, Germany
Posted by: Jonathan on December 20, 2002 01:14 PMHeineken, Denmark
Posted by: Jonathan on December 20, 2002 01:15 PMBeatrice
Posted by: Jonathan on December 20, 2002 01:15 PMI'm liking Hello Kitty's chances . . .
Dunhill. England.
In Bill's absence, I can say that nobody's got it yet.
Posted by: Mr Moment-of-Weakness Googleman on December 20, 2002 02:06 PMSorry, folks, I had to go to the office Christmas party luncheon.
No correct guesses yet. In 1967, the company in question was formed by a merger of a "forest industry" company, a rubber company, and a "cable works." None of these represent what the company and brand (same name) are known for today. I would add that they only became widely known in this country in the last decade or so.
I will add that I own at least one product made by this company.
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 02:08 PMNote to the moment of weakness -- I got my answer from a specific printed source, so you may find competing claims on the Internet.
Now, our benevolent overlords here have given us the afternoon off, so I'm heading out, in the spirit of consumerism to do some last minute patriotic shopping. (Plus, I have to pick up a farewell card for someone: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/20/politics/20CND_LOTT.html)
I'll check in again late this afternoon -- if no one's gotten it by then, I'll call it.
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 02:12 PMIkea, some country in Northern Europe?
Posted by: Scott on December 20, 2002 02:16 PMThe notorious French-American Italian food products company: Franco-American?
Posted by: teenidol on December 20, 2002 04:53 PMWe have heard tell of these new fangled "telephone" contraptions. The Fractures pre-emptively double post with:
Nokia, Finland.
Nokia, Finland.
Woo-hoo! A bootsy-hackly double-victory with Nokia, Finland. Appropriate for the most electronikally mod couple I know.
Happy Sunreturn to you all; we'll see you again in what those damnable Christians call the "New Year."
Posted by: BT on December 20, 2002 05:35 PMThis morning, Metro Bible guy was saying "Augustus Caeser is roasting in HELL Tiberius Caeser is roasting in HELL, uuhhhh, that other Caeser is roasting in HELL."
So though there is no quiz this coming week, had there been, I am certain that the answer would have been "that other Caeser"
Sid, maybe.
Posted by: Scott on December 23, 2002 08:42 AMHuh.
Posted by: boxjam on December 23, 2002 03:21 PMHey, Bill--
Jen and I are in Portland at my folks' place: I'm sending you an email with various and sundry phone numbers to see if you can get together (maybe for a Gangs of NY viewing tomorrow)?
Gavin
(Everybody else--Merry Christmas!)
Posted by: Gavin in Oregon on December 23, 2002 08:31 PMI don't know if this has been pointed out to you tet, but I went to the Interbrand site, and, accoring to their site, Nokia is number SIX, behind Coke, Microsoft, IBM, GE and Intel. Here's the link:
http://www.brandchannel.com/interbrand/test/WMVB2002.pdf
Picky, I know, but it's your own source!
Posted by: Todd on December 25, 2002 11:38 AMHello?
How come no one's here when I am?
Turns out lights.
Closes door.
Hunches shoulders against an icy wind.
Kicks can. Follows it. Kicks it again. And so on.
Sorry, Opus -- as I mentioned in the post, I'm traveling this week.
Right now I'm in the lobby of the University Heights Best Western Hotel in Seattle, Washington. A massive rainstorm is about thirty minutes away, and we're getting ready to drive back down to Portland. The Great Northwest.
Posted by: BT on December 27, 2002 12:38 PMTodd, I was getting my info not from interbrand's site but from a printed source citing Interbrand -- they must have changed their ranking since the printed list. I didn't think to double-check the interbrand site -- I actually didn't even think they'd really list it there.
Damn this chang'able web! Bah.
Posted by: BT on December 27, 2002 12:41 PMWell, the fluffy part of my online activity has only recently resumed, so I can amuse myself by wandering through your archives. They'd better be good, or the metaphorical can I'm kicking will anthropomorphize.
BTW, I was born in Portland, which must be apropos of something, or I wouldn't have mentioned it.
Posted by: opus dark on December 27, 2002 09:31 PMThis is cool, you have to try it. I guessed 70517, and this game guessed it! See it here - http://www.funbrain.com/guess/
Posted by: Allison Trump on February 26, 2006 03:08 AM