It’s always fun to look at reports that show top brands. Is it what you were expecting? Do you recognize all of the brands listed? Can you recall the most recent ad campaign of each of the top brands?
According to Millward Brown, the top 5 brands of 2008 are:

Google
GE (General Electric)
Microsoft
Coca-cola
China Mobile

No big surprise there, except for China Mobile, which I’m shamed to say I had never heard of. China Mobile Limited was incorporated in 1997 in Hong Kong. According to their website “As the leading mobile services provider in China, the Group boasts the …read more

Who would have guessed?  GE (NYSE: GE) put its 101-year old appliance business on the auction block according to an unidentified source who tipped the Wall Street Journal. 
GE is a brand that’s practically synonymous with appliances, and now they’re walking away from a category they helped build to what it is today.  Of course, the GE brand has extended into so many other areas, it’s not surprising that the time has come to trim away some of the excess, particularly since GE is not meeting its revenue goals (the plastics division got the boot last year), but the GE appliances division? 
What …read more

Oprah Winfrey co-founded Oxygen Media, a cable television network, in 2000.  Thanks to Oprah’s involvement (she is one of the most powerful women in the world), the network has grown very successful (now available in 74 million homes) attracting a large audience of primarily female viewers.  That audience is very appealing to NBC Universal who is 80% owned by General Electric (NYSE: GE).  Today, it was announced that NBC Universal plans to acquire Oxygen Media for $925 million.