Honda Ranked Second Most Valuable Brand by Business Week

NEW YORK — Late last week, BusinessWeek and Interbrand, a brand consultancy, released their ninth annual Best Global Brands list, which ranked 100 companies by brand value and included 11 automakers.

Among the auto brands that made the list, Honda was ranked highest (No. 18th), down only 7 percent from last year. Toyota was ranked 8th, down 8% from last year.

Ford was the lone domestic brand to make the list at No. 49.

BusinessWeek’s Best Global Brands ranking is based on Interbrand’s formula that computes a value for brands by making sure each one derives at least a third of its earnings from outside of its home country, is recognized beyond its base of customers, and has publicly available marketing and financial data. Those criteria eliminate most telecoms, heavyweights that sometimes operate under different brand names internationally (such as Wal-Mart), airlines (too hard to separate from factors such as routes and schedules), pharmaceutical brands (consumers typically relate to the product rather than the brand), private companies, and portfolios of brands.