Global Brands Suffer Power Drain According to GfK Roper Consulting Annual Worldwide Study

–U.S. Losing Ground to Europe and Asia–

NEW YORK – August 14, 2007 – GfK Roper Consulting, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, today announced findings from its annual GfK Roper Reports® Worldwide Power Brands study revealing the continued decline of global brand strength among consumers worldwide with U.S. brands losing ground to their European and Asian counterparts. The brand power scores are based on consumer response regarding three key variables: “familiarity”, “really like”, and “advocacy.”

Fall of the American Icons?
Among the top 15 global brands in this year’s study, five of six U.S. brands on the list witnessed power declines including a number of American icons such as Coca-Cola, Colgate, McDonald’s, Nike and Pepsi. Disney is the only U.S. brand in the top 15 that experienced a surge in brand power.

Biggest Winners and Losers
The “House of Mouse” also owns the greatest annual brand power increase among all American brands in the study. Other top gainers this year include BMW with the biggest power jolt, Sony, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Nestle. Though they’ve yet to break into the top 15 global brands overall, U.S.-based Microsoft, National Geographic and Google were also among the top ten brand power gainers this year.

While the steepest drop felt among all 51 brands included in the study was European-based electronics giant Philips, seven of the ten brands with the largest declines were U.S. based. The ten brands suffering the worst power drains from largest to smallest decline were Philips, Coca-Cola, Kodak, Gillette, Colgate, McDonald’s, Panasonic, Nike, Sony-Ericsson and Ford.

Europe and Asia Taking Over U.S Brand Turf
Three U.S. icons (Kodak, Gillette, and Motorola) were bumped from the top 15 global power brands, replaced by two European (BMW and Mercedes-Benz) and one Asian (Honda) brand. While five brands in the top fifteen call Europe home, three of those five (BMW, Nestle, and Mercedes-Benz) experienced significant increases from their 2006 scores. Brand power among Asian companies was more stable as two (Sony and Honda) saw an increase, and two (Samsung, and Panasonic) lost ground.

The following are the top 15 global brands of 2007 and 2006 according to GfK Roper Reports® Worldwide Power Brands study:

“While these findings are a bit unsettling for U.S. brands, it’s not too late for
them to take action,” says Jennifer James, senior consultant with GfK Roper
Consulting. “U.S. icons can take a page from the up and comers like Google and
Apple whose Brand Power scores are on the rise. By giving consumers the
opportunity to directly engage themselves in the brand experience, these
companies are realizing significant success.”

About the GfK Roper Reports® Worldwide Power Brands study
The GfK Roper Reports® Worldwide Power Brands study was conducted
December 2006-January 2007 among 30,000 respondents in 25 countries ages
13 and up. 33 brands surveyed were US-based and the remaining 18 from Asia
and Europe.

For more information please or call us at 212.240.5300.

About GfK Roper Consulting
With offices in the U.S. and UK, GfK Roper Consulting is a division of GfK Custom
Research North America. Offering over 30 years of syndicated research and
analysis, GfK Roper Consulting is responsible for GfK Roper Reports® U.S.
and GfK Roper Reports® Worldwide, the most up-to-the-minute view of the
consumer marketplace in the U.S. and around the globe. In addition, in the U.S.
the division has an ongoing study of consumers' attitudes towards the
environment -- GfK Roper Green Gauge® and insights into the U.S. Youth market
through the GfK Roper Youth ReportTM.

About GfK Custom Research North America
Headquartered in New York, GfK Custom Research North America, is a company
of GfK Custom Research, North America, part of The GfK Group. With home
offices in Nuremberg, Germany, The GfK Group is the No. 4 market research
organization worldwide. Its activities cover five business divisions Custom
Research, Retail and Technology, Consumer Tracking, Media and HealthCare.
The Group has 115 companies and a current total of 8,200 employees who
offer market research services for 90 countries.

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