Top brand values fall in the recession

This brief video report from the BBC looks at the newly published list of the values of the Top 100 brands globally. A look down the list, which shows not only where they are now and where they were last year, but also how much the value of the brand is estimated to have changed in that time, gives some interesting reading, and it could be worth spending some time in class considering the reasons for these changes. For example, notable gains include: - Amazon +22% - Google +25% - Food manufacturers eg Heinz, Kraft, Nestle all approximately +10% - Value + quality clothing ranges Zara +14%, H&M +11%

On the other hand there are the following notable losses:
- Harley Davidson -43%
- Cars manufacturers eg BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Ford all between -7 and -11%
- (Ferrari, on the other hand – no change)
- Starbucks -16%
- Morgan Stanley -26%
- Citi -49%
- UBS -50%
- HSBC -20%

Some other questions you could consider here might be:
What is meant by ‘intangible value’?
How do you think that the value of each brand here is being calculated?
Why have businesses like Porsche and Harley Davidson cut their advertising budgets?
Is this an example of correlation between advertising spend and sales?

You can find the full list, with links to description of how it is compiled, here.