Enjoy a glimpse of the New York launch party for the 2011 Best Global Brands, held on the floor at NYSE Euronext, featuring Interbrand Global CEO Jez Frampton and guests including Angela Ahrendts, CEO, Burberry; Stacy Braun, SVP marketing and advertising, AXA Equitable; Roel de Vries, divisional GM, global brand, Nissan; Susan Popper, SVP of integrated marketing, SAP; Steve Shannon, VP marketing, Hyundai North America; and Douglas Spencer, global head of brand, Thomson Reuters.

And below, Angela Ahrendts shares how she’s made Burberry — which rose 20% on this year’s Best Global Brands ranking — a social and digital leader, in a Q&A session at the third annual Executive Marketing Summit. This half-day conference, hosted by Interbrand in partnership with NYSE Euronext and The Wall Street Journal, was this year entitled, "Inventing the Future: The Essentials to Building a World-Class Brand."

The 2011 Best Global Brands features a British brand that was the biggest non-tech riser on the list: Burberry.

While the global economy made only partial steps towards recovery in 2009, the companies on Interbrand’s 2010 Top Taiwan Brands table delivered impressive growth, regaining any footing lost from the 2009 rankings.

The specific industries driving this year’s growth in value were technology and food. Even as consumers have closely guarded their wallets, the continued growth of China and the gradual rise in income levels propelled the products of MasterKong, Want-Want and Uni-President into more homes. Meanwhile, although extravagant computer purchases were few and far between, the increased spending on netbooks and mobile phones have helped drive the fortunes of Acer, HTC and Asus.

A Global Opportunity
A brand value increase among the majority of the companies on the 2010 Top Taiwan table is good news, but Taiwanese brands interested in taking a place among Interbrand’s Best Global Brands still have a long way to go.

The 100th brand in the Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2010 is Burberry, valued at US $3,110 billion, more than double Acer’s 2010 value of US $1.4 billion. Global brands also have significant reach, with a presence on at least three major continents, and brand geographic coverage in growing and emerging markets – something the top Taiwanese brands still need to focus on. While the opportunity is to become a best global brand undoubtedly exists (particularly for Taiwan’s tech brands) the challenges are great and will require Taiwanese brands' dedication and focus to overcome.

As Taiwanese tech brands continue to grow, it will be imperative that they understand what differentiates them versus competitors in the markets they target. Defining strong propositions will enable these brands to be more effective with their marketing dollars and ensure they are appealing to consumers with the appropriate tone and style. Streamlining product offerings and using the brand as a filter for innovation and design decisions will ensure a unified approach and clarity for customers.

For the food and beverage companies on the table, geographical diversification will be critical to building brand value. It will be essential that they understand how their brands can be expanded beyond the Chinese and Taiwanese markets and positioned correctly for consumers. Once a brand’s audience has been correctly identified, bringing the brand to life through messaging and a visual style that is appropriate to the market and consumer will build strong equity and aid in selection.

Taiwanese brands must expedite the global adaptation of their products and services in order to compete in the marketplace. Strong brands affect people’s lives for the better everyday and Taiwan’s Top Brands are no exception. Global brands, however, have a broader remit, and must aspire to change the world. By achieving such change, Taiwan’s Top Brands will be able to take their place among the Best Global Brands.

Last week, the fashion industry stormed the streets of New York for fashion week. Now, London is experiencing the same stampede. Indeed, at exactly 4 PM today (London time), Burberry live-streamed its Spring 2011 show to close the womenswear portion of London Fashion Week.

In addition to live-streaming the event on its website and numerous other websites, the company invited customers to flagship stores to view the show. Afterwards, store employees distributed iPads to participants. A newly designed app allowed them to view and purchase the items from the runway before the collection is officially released in stores.

Twitter has already spoken, and Burberry’s live-streamed event was deemed a hit — wobbly heels and all.

Burberry is a brand that has taken huge steps in the area of digital since our Best Global Brands 2010 evaluation of its 2009 and early 2010 performance. From in-store technology and digital advertising to social media, it’s integrating its brand at every channel, creating a rich, immersive brand experience for today’s consumers.

It began making news in February 2010 for its Autumn/Winter 2010 runway show. Live 3D footage of the show was beamed to five cities and also streamed to 73 websites (including CNN, Sky News, Vogue, GQ, the Times (UK), The New York Times and Gulf News). Overall, it was the most widely distributed fashion show ever created by a luxury brand, reaching an audience of 100 million users. The show created so much buzz it was a top trending topic on Twitter. Burberry’s decision to allow users to buy items from the show online 72 hours after its premiere was all the more brilliant, as it created a genuinely seamless shopping experience.

In addition to its digital coverage of its runway shows, Burberry has focused on a number of other digital projects in 2010. In June, it announced “Burberry Acoustic,” in collaboration with British bands. The series spotlights up-and-coming British musicians and shares their music via Facebook (Burberry has the most Facebook fans of any luxury brand). Burberry further supplements this and its successful "Art of the Trench.com" initiative with an extremely active Twitter and YouTube presence.

Digital has also been prioritized internally, to promote ease within the organization. Headquarters are equipped with high-tech, video conference facilities, there’s a screening room for large scale meetings and interactive video look books have replaced communication materials for collections.

Overall, Burberry’s brand management team has done a spectacular job of creating a seamless digital brand experience, which appears to be translating to sales in a tough recessionary year — as of August, Burberry exceeded yearly sales estimates. While luxury brands' use of social media can be a tricky business (too much interaction and a brand can risk losing its elite status), so far, Burberry appears to be straddling the line well. 

One thing is for sure, we’ll be watching Burberry closely to see what it does next.

Interview with Jean-Baptiste Danet, CEO Interbrand Europe
Published in La Tribune, May 31 2010
(Lire en français ici.)

Over the past few years, the luxury category has been influenced by a phenomenon called “accessible luxury.” How has this affected the luxury world?

“Accessible luxury” is an oxymoron enabling those brands with a weaker heritage and less anchorage in the tradition of luxury to proclaim themselves as icon brands.

This phenomenon has shrouded the luxury sector in a cloud of contradictions, made even denser by the economic crisis. It has shown how it is possible to either focus on dreams or on reality—but never simultaneously on both.

How have the luxury brands reacted to this?
Some luxury brands, like Ferrari, have chosen to control their growth and even limit production in order to maintain their legendary status. Others, like Armani, have deliberately adopted a volume strategy and endeavored to enlarge their customer base, thereby relinquishing the traditional notion of luxury. These two contrasting strategies have both paid off. It is important to highlight that the way in which consumers have reacted to the crisis proves that luxury is not a category a company can decide to enter. Rather, luxury is born of product excellence. Myths are based on reality, not the contrary. Today, it would seem that “genuine” has become “the exception.”

Is this why some brands have returned to their origins over the past few months? 
Genuine is the key factor of demand and therefore the factor that generates value. Those brands that have surfed on the “luxury for all” trend are no longer considered to be luxury brands per se. Well-established, historical brands have had to focus on their prestige/past glory—on what has made them legendary. Louis Vuitton has strengthened its “traditional” luxury status, notably with a well-inspired and successful advertising campaign highlighting its savoir-faire.

For other brands, demand for perfection and excellence has enabled them to reconstitute a coherent positioning. This is, for example, the case with Hermès (see video below), which has always clearly expressed its positioning based on craftsmanship and the pursuit of the highest quality for its perfectly structured product catalogue.

This endeavor to be genuine has also had an impact on distribution modes. All top brands—Gucci, Prada, Burberry, as well as Vuitton—have invested in expanding and/or realigning their distribution network. When it comes to preserving or communicating a brand image, sales outlets are just as crucial as the products themselves.