Editor's Note: Where the Brands Are

Image: Sean Driscoll

For the eighth year in a row, our colleagues at The Business Journals have produced an exhaustive study looking at how brands line up in the B2B space. Specifically, the research team led by Godfrey Phillips talked to 1,800 business owners, CEOs, and presidents of companies with fewer than 500 employees to determine what brands they liked or loathed.

The news this year is that Apple, a company known more for its cutting-edge and envy-producing technology products, has broken through the consumer ceiling and is now embraced as a business brand. Apple’s been steadily moving up the business-brand ranks, and it pushed into the top tier first with the iPhone and last year with the phenomenally successful iPad. The company’s latest effort, a service plan called Joint Venture that’s specifically targeted to a small-business audience, will no doubt help to keep Apple a favored brand.

As with past years, a few companies will have different components treated as different brands. For example, Phillips and his team looked separately at both Courtyard by Marriott and Marriott Hotels because business travelers see them in different ways. Another example: The researchers assessed both UPS and FedEx separately from their storefront operations, the UPS Store and FedEx Office, because each potentially has a different purpose for a small-business owner.

One change from last year is that the researchers dropped looking at some specific products as brands. Last year, they assessed Apple and the Apple iPhone as specific brands, but this year they decided to consider Apple and all of its products as a single brand. If they hadn’t and also had included the iPad as a standalone brand, we might be seeing an Apple trifecta among the top brand winners.

The top 25 for 2011 reveal some interesting trends: Apple blows away all of its tech competitors, although Hewlett Packard showed growth both for its computer and printer brands. Holiday Inn Express, which debuted on the survey in the No. 4 position, demonstrates the power of value and consistency for business travelers. And financial brands like Visa and the Vanguard Group rose in popularity after a few years of being battered by a negative economic outlook.

And as more and more brands specifically target the small-business or entrepreneurial audience, it will be interesting to watch what happens next year. Will any brand be able to knock Apple from its perch?

Get more business intelligence from Portfolio.com:

• Apple of Business Eyes: Consumer-favorite Apple becomes the dominant player in the business-to-business space, knocking down two-year leader Southwest Airlines as the top B2B brand for 2011, according a Business Journals survey of small- to mid-sized business owners.
• 2011 Power Brands, an Interactive Look: Tour through the 25 top brands for businesses and see if your favorite is among them.
• Best Brands 2011, Inside the Categories: Building a successful and respected brand takes work, especially in tough times like these. A look at the companies that are winning the brand game by focusing on value, innovation, leadership, relevance, momentum, customer service, and ethics.