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Superbrands
Founded	1994; 30 years ago
Founder	Marcel Knobil
Website	superbrands.com

The Superbrands organization publishes surveys related to brands. The organization also publishes a series of brand-focused books and publications. Superbrands has offices in 90 countries.^[1]

Background

Superbrands was founded in 1994^{[citation needed]} by Marcel Knobil.^[2] Through The Centre for Brand Analysis, it compiles and publishes "Business" and "Consumer" lists, which include companies that are said to meet the organisation's definition of a "superbrand": "A [brand that] has established the finest reputation in its field. It offers customers significant emotional and/or tangible advantages over its competitors, which customers want and recognise."^[3]^{[better source needed]} Superbrands charges companies which meet its criteria to be included in Superbrands publications and to be able to use the Superbrands recognition for marketing purposes. In Singapore in 2004, the fee was US$7,000 (equivalent to $11,292 in 2023) annually.^[4]

In each country that Superbrands operates in, it elects a "Superbrands Council" which selects brands and awards them the title of "Superbrands".^{[citation needed]} Some commentators have questioned the value of ranking brands that operate in different markets against each other.^[5]^[6]

Publications

Each participating country publishes its own Superbrands book, which promotes brands in that country. Each brand's editorial has sub-sections which cover the brand's market, achievements, history, product or service, recent developments, promotional activities, brand values, and a "things you didn't know" section. Other publications in the Superbrands stable include Business Superbrands,^[7] CoolBrands, Sport BrandLeaders, and eSuperbrands. In the United States, their publications are called America's Greatest Brands.

The company's 1995 UK publication Superbrands (1995) received a negative review in the Financial Times, with the reviewer stating that the work "offers about as much insight as a random collection of gushing PR handouts."^[8] The Times review noted that the book was a miscellany of facts and narratives and concluded that "anyone seeking an incisive commentary on UK superbrands should look elsewhere."^[9] Cool Brand Leaders: an Insight into Britain's Coolest Brands 2003, which included sixty brands, based on the results of a public poll, was criticised in the Financial Times for being "misguided" in its attempt to define "cool" and for producing "results [that] range from the perplexing to the bizarre."^[10]

References

^ Sophia News Agency (Jan. 11, 2006). British Business Project Superbrands Kicks Off Archived 2008-03-16 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved Jan. 26, 2006.
^ Leonard, Tom (18 October 2006). "The Daily Telegraph: Brand Beckham is kicked into touch The former England captain has been dropped as the face of Police sunglasses - a move that might hit his other sponsorship deals". The Daily Telegraph.
^ Maddock, Guy. "Biffa: superbrand, so what?". TLF Research. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
^ Audrey Tan Rachel Chang (21 September 2004). "Superbrands publisher defends annual brand ranking - Controversy is over whether firms pay to be designated a 'Superbrand'". The Straits Times. Singapore.
^ Aldridge, Alex (20 March 2012). "Superbrands Top 500: A Worrying Signal For The Human Race". legalcheek.com. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
^ Ritson, Mark. "Mark Ritson on branding: It's not cool to compare non-competing brands". Campaign.
^ (June 10, 2004) Superbrands India kickstarts work on Business Superbrands Archived 2006-11-12 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2006.
^ Summers, Diane (27 September 1995). "FT Review of Business Books (13): Mostly whitewash - This compendium gushes, but the selection is strange and lacking in insight / Brand names". Financial Times. p. XI.
^ Ashworth, Jon (10 July 1995). "Ok, so what is the second best-known word?". The Times. London.
^ Tomkins, Richard (22 August 2003). "How the counter-culture revolution killed off cool". Financial Times. p. 10.