Apple unseats Coca-Cola as world’s ‘best brand’

An AT&T customer tries out an Apple iPhone 4 at an AT&T store in Palo Alto, Calif. AP FILE PHOTO

PARIS — Coca-Cola has lost its crown as the world’s best brand, a closely watched survey said on Monday, unseated by the iconic iPhone and iPad maker Apple.

This marks the first time the soft drink missed the top spot on the “best global brand report,” a line-up created in 2000 by marketing consultancy Interbrand, a unit of the Omnicom advertising conglomerate.

“Every so often, a company changes our lives — not just with its products, but with its ethos,” said Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s chief executive.

“This is why, following Coca-Cola’s 13-year run at the top of Best Global Brands, Apple now ranks #1,” he said.

In fact, Coca-Cola dropped two places in 2013, also losing to Google, the search engine, which came in second place.

Apple has always been on the list, beginning at #36 in 2000, but has slowly climbed the ranks.

But Interbrand warned Apple needed to keep a close eye on archrival Samsung (#9), especially on the crucial smartphone market.

“To maintain its number one position over the next year, Apple will have to slow rival Samsung’s momentum in the mobile market and never lose sight of what it does best: ‘Think different’,” the consultancy said.

According to Interbrand, the Apple brand is worth $98.31 billion, a 28 percent rise from the previous year with the Google brand weighing in at $93.29 billion.

Computing giants IBM and Microsoft fill out the top five.

Meanwhile, some recent rising stars have now lost their luster.

BlackBerry, the embattled phone maker, has disappeared from the list completely and Nokia, once the mobile phone leader, tumbled from 13th place to a lowly 57.

Social network Facebook meanwhile jumped to the 52 spot from 69.