These brand identities are extremely powerful and command respect from the universal populace; they also have obtained exclusive leadership position through their 100% ironclad ownership of their name identities. They without a doubt are inspiration to the entire remaining global business community, which is currently engaged in its own desperate climb to the very top.
So who are these global brands and what took them there is not the issue at all. Rather, who will be the new champions in the new race and will they ever be crowned?
The answer lies buried among the current world's top 20% of the business leaders spread around the world, who for the most part, are on an aggressive march to lead the trends, dictate their superiority of global name acceptance and capture the crown of global mindshare. Only a very few are moving forward, but the rest are just screaming on deaf ears or are simply drowning in a copycat, me-too frenzy, with little-to-no chance of ever gaining a unique foothold in the top-tier of global recognition.
Even though they may have the best products and services, they simply do not have the unique device that will earn them their unique bite out of the globe. Somehow, the consumer base of the world conveniently forgets them. Their name identities are burdened with too much luggage, such as accidentally created monikers, lingering trademark conflicts, names and images projecting the wrong meanings and connotations with too many other strings attached.
It's like trying to use a trampoline to stay afloat; it just won't happen.
However, in this fiercely name-driven globally indexed marketplace, they may still be gravy trains to constant advertising and trademark battling projects, but as they are not Five Star Identities, they only struggle as lost and injured brand names.
This raises an even bigger question on why so many corporations for so long will be so wrong. The black and white proof of this hypocritical and illusionary fame has been sitting on Google for years. Most upcoming brand name identities have dozens of identical and thousands of similar names all over the world. This model would survive last century, possibly. But in today's oversaturated market, the low-visibility factor will wipe out all advertising and marketing attempts and power. Never mind about ever becoming a global icon.
In a recent study by ABC Namebank, where the top 20% corporations of the world were analysed to measure the effectiveness of their name identities in direct relation of having an exclusive and 100% ownership of the intellectual property asset by their own masters of the brand. This is not only an absolute pre-requisite to gaining entry into the final circle of fame and glory but also the most economical way to gain entry to the global mindshare.
In this study, the 99.3% of businesses failed. The applied process was the most stringent test of the Five Star Standard of Naming available on the Internet. Most earned 1-2 Star Status, where it can mathematically be proven that their marketing and advertising dollar not only being mostly wasted, but eventually the identity will fade away in time.
The advertising industry seriously disagrees with this ranking approach and put extraordinary emphasis on its main logo-slogan driven trade pushing image building campaigns as big winners, but refuses to accept the global trademark ownership as the final and ultimate test and the Five Star ranking.
A large number of corporations also refuse to accept the validity of such name ranking and deny that there is anything wrong with their names despite, glaringly huge name confusions and serious language and trademark conflicts.
The main problem is no one wishes to have this subject openly discussed at the CEO level. However, the majority new comers of the big game are now accepting this premise and have started to recognise the Five Star Standard.
This accumulation of five stars is what's so common among the world's most powerful brands: Sony, Panasonic, Microsoft, Rolex, Google, CCN or Disneyland and so on.
These identities are not only very simple, unique, related to their business; they are also globally protected and accessible worldwide on ecommerce by simply adding .com to the names. They do not carry extra luggage or are burdened; rather, confusion-free, they are recognised and respected all over the globe and no one anywhere around the world doubts their iron clad and 100% intellectual property ownership to their rightful masters. Confusingly similar or conflictingly identical names will never achieve this global recognition, period.
The Five Star Standard was established some two decades ago, where a single star is awarded to a name-identity for being very simple, one for being very unique, one for being highly related to its core business objective, one for being globally protect able, and lastly one for having acquired a matching dotcom for global e-commerce.
We are faced with a new world and the emergence of a new name economy, where name identities on a global scale will play the national image and leadership games, and the nations with the most global brands will earn the respect, revenue and the best overall image.
Firstly, the mobile and the agile, frantically paced universe of customers is no longer boxed and trapped the way it was during the last century. It ate what it was fed. Now it has become a cook in its own rights, which selects its own recipes and makes its own food. Calls its own shots and creates its own message to stimulate and provide customised comfort.
Secondly, the entire advertising model and the offshoot of all leading branding agencies may have to go on their hands and knees to figure out this sudden tectonic shift in consumer ideology. It is a fire that has already spread out of control. The GooHoo samba, the Google & Yahoo alliance and the online bunch can now easily have the biggest ad groups into knots.
On one side, the pay-per-click and instant customer finding versus bottomless traditional promotion mostly falls on deaf ears. The last century ad-branding craft which created logo-slogans-based comfort will simply have to reinvent itself for a brand new 100% ownership model to create intellectual property assets for clients on the global scale. Like architects delivering a standing building and not just drawings.
The next big global branding race towards 2020 will be the real test, and the prerequisite will be the brand new rules on name identities that are global and exclusively owned by the players. The old successful models from the last century, responsible for great achievements, will not work in the name-identity driven national economies of the new world. This is a new dawn, for new brand leaders under highly effective brand new mediums to get the best position in the fastest time, maximum impact at minimal cost. The new name-economy awaits it thunder.
