Brand Marketing Magazine Establishes 'Hall of Fame Awards'; 2001 Winners Include: GE, Coca-Cola, Ben & Jerry's and Apple.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2001

Brand Marketing magazine has established the Brand Marketing Hall of Fame Awards recognize "excellence and consistent performance" of consumer brands in four key categories: Brand Leadership, Brand Icon, The Spirit of Marketing and Innovation.

The winners for the year 2001 are: General Electric for Brand Leadership, Coca-Cola for Brand Icon, Ben & Jerry's for the Spirit of Marketing, and Apple Computer for Innovation, and is published in an article in the current (April) issue of Brand Marketing.

"General Electric simply ranks as one of the greatest brands of all time, and it merits that distinction largely because of the most sublime virtue in business: Leadership," the magazine states. Richard Costello, head of corporate marketing for GE, says, "We have a monolithic brand-strategy approach where, with a few exceptions, we put the same trademark on every business and product and service." So while the company operates as "a number of very strong, freestanding businesses that have strong management teams in place, there is a mutuality of interest when it comes to positioning the brand. So we have a fairly centralized control of our brand positioning and identity."

"Coke's status as an unparalleled brand icon is also the biggest reason why the company is approaching its current business woes with confidence," says Brand Marketing. "Carbonated-beverage sales in the U.S. have become stagnant, Coke is still trying to build an effective strategy in growth areas like teas and juices, and internal problems like instability in top management are testing the company's resourcefulness. But as long as nearly every American out of diapers recognizes the Coca-Cola logo, can remember a Coke jingle from "It's the real thing" to "Always," and has to slake a thirst from time to time, the durability of Coca-Cola as the nation's leading brand icon should continue."

The Spirit of Marketing category recognizes "a record of corporate responsibility, actions that support the common good, and an emphasis on values as well as profits," according to the article. "Ben & Jerry's has always made some of the best ice cream in America, and certainly with the most creative flavors. But it has absolutely transcended every other brand in any category of business in its attention to social causes, ranging from the plight of the family farmer in America to the ecological importance of preserving the Amazon rain forest." Thanks to the personal devotion and business vision of its founders, Ben & Jerry's has managed to turn consciousness itself into the face of the brand," according to the magazine.

The award for Innovation recognized "success earned by taking risks, breaking the rules and reinventing the basis of competition within a category. This could have been written specifically to describe Apple computer. Just like the first time around, Apple is relying on product innovation, loyalty-inspiring performance and cutting-edge marketing to remind America why it became a force in the first place," Brand Marketing states.

Fairchild Publications, a division of Advance Publications, Inc. is the world's leading publisher of fashion and retail publications with 14 titles within four divisions: WWD Media Worldwide, consumer, business-to-business and Internet. The company's titles are: Women's Wear Daily (WWD), Beauty Biz, Brand Marketing, Children's Business, Daily News Record (DNR), Executive Technology, Footwear News, Home Furnishings News, InFurniture, Salon News, and Supermarket News in the business-to-business division and W, Jane and Details in the consumer area.