BlackBerry tumbles out of UK’s Coolest Brand list

Rating: No surprises as Apple claims Top Slot

RIM’s woes continue as its BlackBerry brand tumbled out of the CoolBrands survey this year [2012]. Adding insult to injury, Apple has knocked Aston Martin from its spot at the top to claim the title of UK’s coolest brand for 2012/13. Almost half the list is made up of technology and media brands (45 per cent), compared with just one quarter (25 per cent) last year [2011]. A record amount of online brands made the Top 20 – highlighting how important connecting and communicating online has become. Significantly, Facebook did not feature in this year’s top 20, either. Even Harley-Davidson and Ferrari didn’t make the list. Neither did Nintendo or PlayStation.“Perhaps, reflective of its lack of success since becoming a public company, Facebook has failed to join its peers in the top 20,” observed Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the CoolBrands Expert Council.

The organiser has definitely spotted a trend. Besides the fact that many of the brands are online related, This year has produced themost affordable list yet – with 25 per cent of brands free to consumers.

These freebies are YouTube, Google, Twitter, and Skype. GoMobile News begs to differ over the fact that the BBC iPlayer is regarded as ‘free’.

Brits are forced to pay £145.50 per annum to the BBC, even if they don’t want to.

Adding to the fact that ‘cool’ is no longer equated with ‘luxury’, an additional three of the brands (15 per cent) cost consumers under £10: -Häagan-Dazs, Ben & Jerry’s plus Vogue.

The prestigious CoolBrands list is co-ordinated by the British Centre for Brand Analysis and is drawn from over 10,000 independently identified brands, shortlisted to 1,200. It is vote by a combo of nearly 3,000 Brit consumers plus a panel of 39 key figures.

“It will be interesting to see next year if the luxury brands fight back, or whether the list continues to feature so many online brands together with the tech giants,” Cheliotis suggested.

Here’s the full list …

1. Apple
2. YouTube
3. Aston Martin
4. Twitter
5. Google
6. BBC iPlayer
7. Glastonbury
8. Virgin Atlantic
9. Bang & Olufsen
10. Liberty
11. Sony
12. Bose
13. Häagen-Dazs
14. Selfridges
15. Ben & Jerry’s
16. Mercedes-Benz
17. Vogue
18. Skype
19. Nike
20. Nikon