Yannis

Foreign brands top British list of cool

Being British just isn’t cool when it comes to the top brands in Britain, according to the results of a public opinion poll into what names tickle the fancy of British consumers.

Italian fashion label Diesel, US tanning lotion St Tropez, Germany’s Audi cars and Belgian lager Stella Artois topped their respective categories in the list of coolest brands. Superbrands, which monitors the image of brands worldwide, conducted the survey with the YouGov polling institute, which questioned 1,000 British adults in the 18- to 35-year age range. While British products might be flagging, British celebrities are not.

Cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff, football star David Beckham and English-raised actress and fashion trend-setter Sienna Miller all overtook such US idols as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for the top spots. Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of CoolBrands, the Superbrands unit that deals with cool, told AFP that the survey results indicated that “cool is a pretty universal language”.

“I think an interesting thing on the international perspective is how much the country of origin affects a brand's cool credentials,” he said. “If you take someone like Chanel, or someone like Diesel, these are brands that are not only seen to be cool in the United Kingdom, but very much have universal currency.” “So one of the things you’ll find is not many of the brands on this list have a very British heritage. They’re either US, French, Italian -- pretty much anything, really, except British.”

While British car marques such as Jaguar and Land Rover remain among the coolest brands in Asia, Audi scores as Britain’s coolest car brand list due to its German credentials, followed by Japan’s Suzuki and Sweden’s Saab. Becoming a cool brand isn’t just about being the label everyone is wearing or the car everyone is driving, Cheliotis explained. “When we ask about what makes a cool brand, the kind of things we get back is authenticity, originality, uniqueness,” he said.

Cheeky lingerie boutique Agent Provocateur and British fashion designer Alexander McQueen trailed Diesel for coolest fashion brands, while Italian innovator DeLonghi, London-based home outfitter The White Company and Spanish espresso specialist Gaggia were the coolest homeware brands. And Australia proved that countries can have brands, too, by landing on the coolest place abroad.

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Hypersonic

I have been saying this for quite some time now. Audi has become very popular among many of Mercedes traditional owners - Mercedes has become a very American-targeted brand, many of their traditional European buyers definitely find Audi to be a more European brand - it just feels more European than Mercedes or BMW do these days - this of course isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does alienate some of their more conservative European market.

Yannis

This survey proves what i have said many times. For young people (18-30 YO) Audi is the most desirable German luxury marque ahead of BMW and Mercedes.

Just_me

This survey proves nothing since both Saab and Volvo is ahead of BMW. Give me a break.

Yannis

I thought only SAAB was ahead of BMW...

Just_me

It doesnt matter. its lame anyway. Not a single swede would put Saab high in a cool-list. Uncool-list perhaps

Yannis

I 'm not a fan of SAAB but they were voted to be cool and that means that they have a certain appeal to young people in UK.

Just_me

People in UK are all like Jeremy Clarkson, full of crazy ideas j/k

Yannis

Lol, i 'm sure they also like BMW a lot. BMW is selling more than 100k cars a year in UK. More than Audi or Mercedes.

Just_me

makes this list even uncooler

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