Awards for Volkswagen, Lego and Apple

The “Best Brands 2011” awards were presented on Wednesday evening in Munich. The winning title in the “Best Corporate Brand” category went to the car manufacturer Volkswagen, and the toy manufacturer Lego took first place in the “Best Product Brand” category for the second time in a row. The consumer electronics group Apple won in the category “Best Growth Brand” and the oldest European luxury hotel chain Kempinski leads the brand ranking in this year’s special category “Best Service Brand among Decision Makers”.

After a preselection, the jury for this brand ranking was ultimately made up of German consumers. The award-winning candidates were measured in a study by the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK) based on two key criteria: their actual economic success in the market and the popularity of their brand in the perception of consumers. The automobile manufacturer Volkswagen relegated the Miele and Audi brands to places 2 and 3 in the “Best Corporate Brand” category. This means that the Wolfsburg-based company is a hit in this category: two years ago, the brand catapulted into fifth place and fought its way to third place in the previous year now at the top.

Last year’s winner Lego won in the “Best Product Brand” category, closely followed by Miele (2nd place) and Nivea (3rd place). The toy manufacturer is one of the nation’s long-running hits: for the eighth time in a row, the brand has been voted into the top ten of the German brand rankings. The winner of the “Best Growth Brand” category managed to march through to the top: Apple. The entertainment electronics group, which had never been represented in the “Best Brands” rankings before, immediately secured first place with its products this year. The second-placed LG and the shoe manufacturer Tamaris, which landed in third place, also celebrated a debut. This year’s special category “Best decision-maker brand in the field of services” is headed by the Kempinski brand. Europe’s oldest luxury hotel chain was able to prevail over Germany’s largest direct bank ING DiBa (2nd place) and Deutsche Lufthansa (3rd place) and secure the top position. The German brand ranking “Best Brands” was launched in 2004 by the Serviceplan Group, the GfK Group, ProsiebenSat.1 Media AG, Wirtschaftswoche, the Markenverband and iq media marketing.

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