14 DAY TRIAL // Imagine your worst fear: spiders, snakes, open spaces, closed spaces, high places or everything else you can think of that will bring chills down your spine. Now, imagine the thing that would make Apple want to have never even started the race in the first place. The Business Superbrand UK race that is. That would be a total and utterly clear defeat in front of two of its biggest rivals: Google and Microsoft.
While Google sits very comfortable in the first place and Microsoft in second, thus nicely occupying the first two places of the Business Superbrands Top 500 for 2008, Apple has slipped from its comfortable 8th place occupied last year - which still granted the Cupertino-based a Top 10 status - to the 11th position.
Although it may sound a little harsher than it is, Apple has been literally knocked out cold of the Top 10 for this year and will have to work a lot harder to be able to come back in by the beginning of 2009. But do not despair, you Apple fan-boys everywhere! The time has not come for the big Apple to withdraw from the battle and it will definitely be able to recover from this image loss (Britain based, but still an image hit to their prestige on the market nonetheless).
There is one little, but very important, catch to this whole deal. This Business Superbrands Top 500 does not include companies from the same area (hardware and equipment for Apple), it actually classifies companies according to their quality, reliability and distinction. And, guess what? If you were to find another company placed in the same category as Apple in this Top 500, the next ones you will stumble upon, while going down to the last place, are IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Intel. The places they're occupying? 27, 32, and 42, respectively.
I suppose this tells you a lot about what that 11th position actually means when compared to companies that work in the same market niche. Yes, it's not quite one of the top 10, but it is the best out of its league and this should make any Apple fan-boy proud to have an Apple-marked piece of hardware next to him.
The thing that should worry Apple though is the economic slowdown expected to hit UK during this year, a trial that will only allow the strongest companies to walk out with their reputation intact.
As Superbrands Council Chairman, Stephen Cheliotis, declared: "British business opts for what it knows and trusts and as we head toward economic slowdown this is only going to become more important. The next year will put even the strongest brands to the test as they defend their organizations from the challenges that await. It's times like these that investment in building engagement, trust and loyalty with a customer base really gets the successful businesses through difficulties caused by economic problems. Reputation is the company's greatest asset and brand building is to become even more crucial over the next few years than in the last decade of stability."