Related topics: Research In Motion, Nintendo, Disney, Google, Apple
Clif Bar
There are many ways to judge a brand's value. Brand consultant Landor Associates assembled a list of breakaway brands after surveying consumers over the past three years to learn which companies were making the strongest connections.
Clif Bar is the brand that zoomed to the top of its list. The seeds of the California company were planted in a Berkeley bakery in the late 1980s. The Clif Bar was rolled out at a bicycle show in 1991.
The company owes much of its recent growth spurt to overseas expansion and the introduction of new products.
The company reaches out to consumers via environmental programs and charitable giving. Earlier this year it initiated an employee stock ownership program that gave its 234 employees a 20% stake in the business.
Once found mainly in health-food outlets, its high-carb energy bars and drinks are now also sold in grocery and convenience stores.
Three years ago -- before "The Social Network" was filmed and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was richer than Steve Jobs -- Facebook was beginning to venture beyond the student crowd, letting the whole world onto its website. It had just $52 million in revenue then, and fewer than 100 million active users. Plus, it faced competition from a MySpace that was backed by the media and entertainment conglomerate News Corp. (NWSA, news).
Today, Facebook is clearly the king of social networking. In September, it had 148 million unique visitors in the United States alone, giving the website a bigger audience than the New York Times, ESPN.com and Twitter combined, according to comScore data.
When you can put up those kinds of numbers and have Justin Timberlake in the movie about your site, that's a breakthrough.
BlackBerry
Smart phones from Google (GOOG, news)and Apple (AAPL, news)are cutting into the market share of Research In Motion (RIMM, news)'s BlackBerry, but the Canadian company is expected to ship 11.8 million units in the fourth quarter and add 5 million subscribers.
Consumers continue to give the BlackBerry high marks for its core strengths, including security, its keyboard and battery life. "Perceptions are that BlackBerry continues to be highly relevant and differentiated," Hayes Roth, Landor's chief marketing officer, says.
The brand's strength should help Research In Motion as it moves into the tablet-computer market. The company said it will begin selling its BlackBerry PlayBook early next year for less than $500. Research In Motion officials say the tablet will be faster than the Apple's iPad and will find an audience, particularly among corporate users.
LG
The South Korean electronics giant has seen its stock price triple in the past three years as consumer products such as its Chocolate mobile phones became big sellers.
Meanwhile, advancements in liquid-crystal-display technology made LG's high-definition TVs a fixture in Americans' living rooms and ultimately led to a partnership with movie distributor Netflix (NFLX, news).
LG's energy-efficient front-loading washing machines have also found a market in the United States.
Nintendo
Nintendo's Wii is credited with getting more women to play video games and expanding the demographics for the video game industry -- seniors organize virtual bowling parties around its game consoles.
