Strong brands have the power to create business value. They impact much more than revenues and profit margins. Strong brands create competitive advantages by commanding a price premium and decrease the cost of entry into new markets and categories. They reduce business risk and help attract and retain talented staff.

Millward Brown Optimor created the BrandZ Top 100, a ranking that identifies the world’s most valuable brands measured by their dollar value. Our brand ranking provides key insights and actionable information for finance, marketing and business professionals on how to manage and grow their brand assets.

Millward Brown Optimor congratulates all companies featured in this year’s BrandZ ranking: being among the world’s most valuable brands demonstrates successful business and brand management.

The 2010 BrandZ Top 100

The long-awaited recovery is now under way, but it’s a slow, painful slog that’s short on trust and confidence and long on a drumbeat of numbers that mostly shift from dreadful to less depressing. Twenty-seven months after the recession began, unemployment is stuck at 9.7%. Housing starts are dragging near half-century lows. Consumers are finally spending again, but they’re still too fearful about their jobs and homes to crowd malls and auto lots with the buoyant abandon that heralds a full-rigged revival, the kind Americans are used to.

Amazingly, as consumers struggle, U.S. corporations are staging a nearly unprecedented comeback that’s largely escaping notice. The gargantuan, dispiriting job cuts that seem to dominate the news have also been the spur for an epic resurgence in profits. For 2009, the Fortune 500 lifted earnings 335%, to $391 billion, a $301 billion jump that’s the second largest in the list’s 56-year history, approaching the increase in the robust recovery of 2003. For last year the 500 raised their return on sales from less than 1% to 4%. That’s close to the list’s 4.7% historical average.

Hence, the 500′s profits virtually returned to normal after years of extremes — bubbles in 2006 and 2007, collapse in 2008 — despite a feeble overall recovery that’s far from normal. This year’s list — reminder: the Fortune 500 ranks U.S. companies by revenue — is packed with changes that reflect and spotlight the trends reshaping corporate America. The homebuilders that occupied 14 places in 2007 and three last year, including Centex and Pulte, have all disappeared, casualties of shrinking sales. No fewer than nine newcomers from recession-resistant health care joined in 2009, among them drugmakers Genzyme (sales: $4.5 billion) and Allergan ($4.5 billion).

The fall in commodity prices removed half-a-dozen energy production, oil refining, and pipeline companies, and bumped last year’s No. 1, Exxon Mobil ($285 billion), into second place, far behind the new leader, Wal-Mart ($408 billion). The collapse in car sales pushed General Motors ($105 billion) from sixth to 15th place, the first time in the list’s history that GM didn’t make the top 10.

The rebound comes chiefly from three sectors: financial services, consumer cyclicals — items ranging from toys to furniture — and health care. In 2009 banks, securities firms, and insurance companies lowered their combined losses from a staggering $213 billion to just $20 billion. Buoyed by a government bailout, AIG swung from a loss of $99 billion in 2008 — a Fortune 500 record — to a deficit of $11 billion last year. The combined losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shrank by $15 billion to a still-huge $94 billion, as write-downs continued on subprime mortgages. By contrast, the banks and brokers, including J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs, rebounded from losses of $8.7 billion to $38 billion in profits. Write-downs on toxic securities receded, and investment-banking profits jumped, helping offset losses on credit cards and mortgages. J.P. Morgan Chase doubled earnings to $12 billion, thanks chiefly to big gains in fixed-income trading.

In consumer cyclicals, a category that could be labeled “things you’d like to buy but can put off,” companies suffered losses of $42 billion in 2008. Casino operators, electronics retailers, and auto-parts suppliers saw revenues fall faster than they could slash costs. That trend reversed in 2009. Wal-Mart managed to lift revenues, on top of a big increase in 2008, by attracting bargain-hungry customers from competitors with remodeled stores and inexpensive private-label goods, offering everything from frozen pizza to patio furniture in one stop. A single trip also meant less spending on gas. Result: Earnings surged 7.0% to $14.3 billion.

The 500′s most exceptional study in ingenuity may be Mattel, the world’s largest toymaker. In late 2008, Mattel foresaw that sales would plunge in 2009 and introduced a clench-jawed cost-cutting campaign called Global Cost Leadership. Mattel pared its professional workforce by 10%, or 1,000 employees; paid down debt to lower interest costs by $10 million; and reduced overhead by $132 million. Its revenues did drop by $487 million, or 8%. But costs fell much more, by a remarkable $669 million before tax. Mattel booked a net income increase of $149 million, or 39%.

The star of 2009 is undoubtedly health care. The sector’s earnings jumped to an all-time high of $92 billion, placing it second behind tech at $94 billion. Health-care earnings rose by $23 billion, or 33%.

The Fortune 500′s remarkable response is yet another chapter in the saga of a list that’s gone from boom to bust to almost normal, all in the space of three short years. Never has getting to “almost normal” been a bigger achievement.
From:www.fortune.com

1. Facebook
2. Amazon
3. Apple
4. Google
5. Huawei
6. First Solar
7. PG&E
8. Novartis
9. Walmart
10. HP
11. Hulu
12. Netflix
13. Nike
14. Intel
15. Spotify
16. BYD
17. Cisco Systems
18. IBM
19. GE
20. Disney
21. Gilt Groupe
22. Indian Premier League
23. PatientsLikeMe
24. Grey New York
25. BMW DesignworksUSA
26. Synthetic Genomics
27. FiLife
28. Frito-Lay
29. Alibaba
30. MITRE
31. HTC
32. Diller Scofidio + Renfro
33. Firstborn
34. Sportvision
35. Ideo
36. Samsung
37. Glam Media
38. Ngmoco
39. VNL
40. Aldi Süd
41. Fast Retailing
42.Huayi Brothers
43. Athenahealth
44. MVRDV
45. Alstom
46. Quantcast
47. Good Guide
48. Microsoft
49. Politico
50. Twitter

货币政策上，“繁荣宽松”退出和“适度宽松”动态微调在某一特定阶段将影响市场流动性，海外热钱的涌入和第三次居民储蓄搬家将成为流动性接力棒。对于国内的股票市场而言，特别是在2010年上半年，在不考虑其它因素情况下，结构性充裕的流动性必然推动结构化泡沫行情。2010年，预计中国经济将形成增速较快、通胀较低的平稳运行局面，内需强劲与外需回暖支持经济持续复苏，宏观经济将启动新一轮增长周期。推动中国宏观经济的三驾马车有望形成“两快一慢”的格局：预计全年GDP同比增长9.2%左右，固定资产投资增速约为25%左右，社会消费品零售总额指标名义增速将达16.5%左右，出口将增长8%左右，进口增长15%左右，CPI全年涨幅约3.0%左右，PPI全年涨幅约4.0%左右，工业企业利润增速将达15%到25%。A股公司业绩增长将沿着健康通道上行，预计业绩增长区间是15%-30%。业绩增长将在季度财报、半年度财报和年度财报等特定阶段引发A股市场成长重估。

对于个人投资者来说，在这样的情势下要及早做好个人的投资规划，充分共享2010年中国经济的增长。对于有经验的投资者，可以选择汽车、电子、消费品等受金融危机影响较大，而即将快速复苏行业中的优秀个股。对于更多普通投资者来说，够买一个业绩优秀的基金是更保险的选择。而在产品选择上，开放式基金明年更有优势。因为开放式基金比股票的风险小、收益小，比封闭式基金风险大、收益大。不过在业绩方面，开放型基金也是最良莠不齐的一种，有下跌幅度非常大的，也有上涨幅度喜人的。富国天瑞就是开放式基金里面的佼佼者，09年以来它一直获得投资者的追捧，申购量遥遥领先于其它同类基金。受到这样的追捧，富国天瑞也的确没有让人失望。截止12月14日，它的净收益达到99.53%，在所有偏股基金中名列三甲。业绩说明一切，如果你还没有想好新一年里的投资计划，可以考虑一下富国天瑞。而根据近期富国天瑞季报显示，规模已经超过100亿，据说就要关闭了，所以想要在2010年搭上牛基的投资者一定要抓紧行动了。