Global : 17 fashion-luxury brands in top 100

Brand culture is spreading its wings around the globe, where companies are creating and building international brands to captivate consumers, not only by breaking geographical boundaries but also religious and cultural barriers.

The survey of Top 100 Best Global Brands shows how leading companies manage and promote their brands through unique business plans. Whether these initiatives focus on a communication output or an internal program to engage employees with the brand, all of the analysis suggests that the brand strategy itself has the ultimate impact on the brand’s ability to create and build its value.

For instance, the two sport giants see contrasting results, with Nike taking the 29th spot and Adidas at 69th. Same seems to be the scene for Personal Care category, where Gillette stands at 16th rank while Johnson & Johnson squeezes in at No 90.

At 51st position, L’Oreal was the only Cosmetic brand that made it to top 100.

As for Luxury brands, Louis Vuitton (LV) stood at 17th, Gucci made it to top 50 by holding the 46th spot and Tiffany’s was nowhere near and was ranked at 79.

Gap took the highest position in Clothing accessory fashion category at 61st and Polo Ralph Lauren just made it and grabbed the 99th spot.

In all, the top 100 global brands together were worth more than one trillion dollars. 17 brands made it from Fashion-Apparel-Luxury category, having earned elite reputation in their respective fields.

Esprit May Spend $1 Billion to Buy Luxury Fashion Brand by 2008

By Nikola Kemper and Ting Ting Ng

Esprit Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong- based clothing retailer with shops in more than 40 nations, plans to spend $1 billion to acquire a luxury brand by next year to improve product quality.
``I would like to integrate such a brand as a better sister of Esprit and as a role model to access good designers who normally wouldn't want to work for Esprit,'' Chief Executive Officer Heinz Krogner said in Hong Kong. ``It doesn't need to be a huge company and it should not dilute earnings. We aim to buy knowledge of the luxury segment, not revenue.''
Esprit's profit in the six months ended Dec. 31 surged 28 percent to HK$2.4 billion ($307 million) on 25 percent more sales from Europe. The company aims to open a new store, including franchised outlets, every day in the year from July, Krogner said.
Inditex SA, Europe's biggest clothing retailer, has more than tripled in size in six years to 3,200 stores. The Spain- based retailer is also opening at least one store a day, aiming to add as many as 520 stores in the year to January.
Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe's second largest clothing retailer, planned to add 95 new stores worldwide in six months. Profit in the three months ended May rose 31 percent on sales from 1,400 stores in 28 countries.
China Venture
Esprit aims to boost sales by two-thirds to $5 billion by 2009 and add 400 stores in three years. Currently, it generates about 86 percent revenue from Europe with Germany the biggest single market. Sales from Asia Pacific account for 11.6 percent of the group's total with the rest from North America.
``Our focus is to maintain double-digit growth in Europe, increase the growth in Asia to more than 20 percent and do the same in America,'' said Krogner. ``Asia and America have to grow faster than Europe because they are relatively small at this moment but the potential is as good as in Europe.''
The company invests $20 million a year in North America to boost growth in the region.
Esprit's venture business in mainland China reported a 50 percent surge in profit on 34 percent more turnover last year through 730 self-operated and franchised stores, according to the annual report of China Resources Enterprise Ltd., which holds 51 percent of the venture.
The retailer owned 12,090 wholesale distribution channels, 638 directly managed retail stores under the brands Esprit, edc and cosmetic trademark Red Earth by the end of last year.

Source: Bloomberg.com