With a 44 per cent increase in its brand value in the last one year, Google has emerged as the brand with the fastest growth says global brand ranking agency, Interbrand Corporation, in the latest annual Businessweek / Interbrand survey of global brands.

The internet search engine brand has outpaced others in the list for the second straight year; The Interbrand report says that Google''s brand value rose 44 per cent in the past one year to $17.8 billion, ranking the brand at 20th place.

Among this year''s other top gainers are Google, Zara, Apple, and Nintendo in the annual ranking of The Best Global Brands.

Coca-Cola topped the list, for the seventh year in a row, even though the value of the brand declined 3 per cent. Nokia emerged the highest-ranking brand outside the US while American brands made up more than half of the top 100.

Interbrand''s methodology values brands using sales and a consideration of how important the brand is in the sector — the same way any other corporate asset is valued — on the basis of how much it is likely to earn for the company in the future.

Accordingly, each brand must derive at least a third of its earnings outside its home country, be recognizable outside of its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data.

Interbrand says it uses a combination of analysts'' projections, company financial documents, and its own qualitative and quantitative analysis to arrive at a net present value of those earnings.

Case studies
Reviving even a legendary brand isn''t easy once consumers have a negative perception of it. For example, the once iconic Ford brand lost 19 per cent its brand value in this year''s annual ranking, Highlighting the carmaker''s permanent discount policy in the US as a factor that has eroded the value of its brand.

Even perennial winners as Coca-Cola (No. 1) can have trouble boosting their brand. Though the beverage giant stayed as the world''s No.1 brand for the seventh
year running, because of its global presence, yet it lost 3 per cent of its brand value, because its move into healthier drinks has yet to resonate.

However, a brand can stage a comeback, as several such revivals emerged in this year''s ranking. While it''s tempting for a challenged brand to emulate the likes of Google (No. 20), Apple (No.33), or Starbucks (No 88), doing so can seem audacious at best, delusional at worst, says the report.

Interbrand provides a potentially more useful exercise in examining brands that have stumbled but recovered. Nokia Corp, which ranked No.5 this year staged a comeback by realising the need for cheaper handsets for developing countries and responding to the need, even it released high-end phones aimed at both the consumer and business user and is now showing strength in emerging and mature markets alike.