Brandchannel conducts the study each year under the following conditions: • Readers are instructed to vote for the brands that had the most impact on them that year. • Impact is defined as good or bad. (Bad impact might be a brand like Enron.) •The study runs online and is open to the public during November and December. • Votes can be cast for up to five brands per region; respondents can only vote once per region but no section is mandatory.

This is not a study of top-of-mind awareness, which would be a main criteria of measuring a brand’s recognition. Respondents were not asked “when you think of the auto industry, who comes to mind?” – they were asked what five brands had the biggest impact on their lives that year. So of the 2500 global respondents, MINI ranked 22nd in terms of brand impact. That’s still a very impressive spot to hold in the grand scheme of things and is probably more indicative of the group that responded than of any actual place the MINI brand holds in the market and culture at large. And in that light, it doesn’t surprise me that a service like Skype that’s given us a whole new way to communicate would rank higher than our favorite little car. It further doesn’t surprise me that Apple and Google are fighting back and forth for top honors on this list because as almost any Apple user will tell you, their Apple changed the way they use a computer in a significant and positive way. And like Doug said, Google is our instant access to the cumulative knowledge of mankind – now that’s an impact.

So don’t fret about MINI’s brand recognition, as that’s not what this study is about. Furthermore, there’s much more to a brand than simple recognizability. Target isn’t competitive with Wal Mart simply because they’re equally known. Target has a different set of values, a separate way of interacting with it’s customers and that relationship is where the brand lives.

The MINI brand has strengths-a-plenty and the biggest of those is its drivers and enthusiast community – the forefront of their interaction with people.

So everybody take a deep breath. The MINI brand is alive and well. Anybody wondering what makes a brand a brand can click here to read my post from last March when we first started hearing about the Clubman/Traveler and a lot of people were worried about MINI’s brand.

Gabe, you’re “post of the month” comment after what I posted that day still makes me chuckle.

Viva la MINI!

NS in NE

Starbucks for example… We may not all drink it, but we pass 3 or 4 Starbucks outlets daily. Depending on where you live, you might pass 3 or 4 MINI’s per week or even per month knowingly.

The charm and uniqueness of the MINI faded to the genral public. The first year out, it was an eye magnet on any road… “HOW CUTE” or “WTF is that THING?”.

As one questioned before me “How does the MINI Rank amongst it’s peers?”

Unless I missed it on the list, the first car company on the list for 2005 is Ford. They are number 57. Chrysler is 71 and GM isn’t even on the list. Considering the performance of Ford, et al, as of late, being on the list hasn’t done them much good.

While it’s always nice to make a list, I don’t think MINI has anything to be concerned nor embarrassed about.

MINI only has 6-8 months before they start selling the R56, in which case there should be a demand surge for the “latest and greatest” (I use that term loosely, substitute “newest” if you’re not a fan of the R56). Effectively that will make for at least another 2-3 years that MINI can continue to sell at MSRP or MSRP + mark-up.

The real concern for MINI isn’t low brand recognition. Living below the radar is just fine as long as you’re selling vehicles at MSRP. The real concern is that with the substantial rise in production capability in Oxford that is due to come online with the R56, that MINI dealers may start to develop a substantial inventory and then (gasp) actually have to start selling the cars for $500 over invoice, instead of having the car sell itself.