BSI Group named as a Business Superbrand

BSI Group, the leading independent professional business services organization was today announced as one of the UK’s leading business brands in the Business Superbrands 2008 list. The announcement follows a robust selection process taking into account the views of an independent and voluntary council of experts and over 1,500 business professionals, the latter surveyed by research agency YouGov.   This is the fourth time in a row that the award has been made to BSI.

Business Superbrands is a unique initiative from the Superbrands organization, the global branding arbiters. Business Superbrands is in its eighth year and has become a key barometer on the performance of brands across a wide variety of sectors.

“With talk of significant slowdown in the economy over the next 12 months, it is reassuring to those companies achieving Business Superbrands status that they possess a powerful, respected and recognized brand that should assist them in mitigating risk, negating the downturn and outperforming competitors,” comments Stephen Cheliotis, Chairman of the Business Superbrands Council for 2008.

“The essential components that define a Business Superbrand – quality, reliability and distinction – help make a business strong enough to see off the challenges bought about by a deteriorating economic climate.”

As a Business Superbrand, BSI Group has become extremely desirable among many business leaders and influencers.  From its inception over a century ago, BSI today operates globally by inspiring confidence and delivering assurance to clients with standards-based solutions in more than 100 countries.  Recent high profile activities have included partnering with Carbon Trust and Defra to develop a standard methodology for calculating the embodied greenhouse gasses in products and services; developing the world’s first standards for business continuity management (BS 25999) and sustainable event management (BS 8901) used at Live Earth; and partnering with Thatcham to develop a Kitemark® scheme to ensure high quality crash repairs.  BSI is also well-known for developing the world’s first standard for quality management systems, now known as ISO 9001 and adopted by over 1 million companies in 170 countries.

BSI’s Kitemark® – the UK’s first product quality mark and the premier symbol of trust – has for the first time also been recognized as a Business Superbrand in its own right. 

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NOTES TO EDITORS

About Business Superbrands

The Top 500 league of Business Superbrands is compiled by a council of senior business leaders and an independent survey of 1,500 professionals. The list reveals the brands that have established the finest reputations in their fields and make the most impact on the UK business sector.

The process of finding the UK’s b2b branding champion’s started when an initial population list of thousands of b2b brands was compiled by independent researchers. A short list of just over 1300 brands was generated from this, which was sent to the 26 person voluntary and independent Business Superbrands council, a group which is revised each year and features marketing authorities from a variety of fields. The 50% of brands rated lowest are eliminated; the top 50% are sent for rating by business professionals after which, a combined score is produced and a new league table devised. Another third are eliminated leaving the remaining 500 brands, which are awarded Business Superbrands status.

Brands are rated on the following three factors:

1) Quality, i.e. does the brand represent quality products and services?
2) Reliability, i.e. can you trust the brand to deliver consistently against its promises and maintain product and service standards across all customer touch points?
3) Distinction, i.e. is the brand well known in its sector, is it suitably differentiated from its competitors and does it have a personality and values that make it unique within its market place.

About Superbrands

The Superbrands organization presents expert and consumer opinion on branding. In the UK the core programmes include: Superbrands, Business Superbrands, and CoolBrands. Each explores the leading brands in these respective fields.

Each annual programme has an independent selection process that seeks the opinion of an expert Council and a nationally representative sample of consumers. This process generates an annual “Top 500” for each programme which is published in the national and trade press and in the relevant Superbrands publication.

Each brand in the Top 500 is awarded “Superbrands”, “Business Superbrands” or “CoolBrands” status. These leading brands also have the opportunity to participate in a wider programme to help maximize their status. This optional programme, for which an annual fee is payable, is administered by Superbrands (UK) Ltd. Programme benefits include a case study in the relevant Superbrands publication, use an exclusive award stamp, PR & Marketing services, access to members-only networking service, and tickets to various events.

Superbrands programmes operate in over 60 countries worldwide and are administered by a local licensee of which the UK company is one.

About BSI Group

BSI Group is a global independent business services organization that inspires confidence and delivers assurance to customers with standards-based solutions. Originating as the world’s first national standards body, the Group has over 2,250 staff operating in over 100 countries through more than 50 global offices. The Group’s key offerings are:

• The development and sale of private, national and international standards and supporting information
• Second and third-party management systems assessment and certification
• Product testing and certification of services and products
• Performance management software solutions
• Training services in support of standards implementation and business best practice.

A survey carried out by GfK NOP in 2006 showed that 88 per cent of the UK adult population trust the Kitemark®.

www.bsigroup.com

Further information

For further information on Business Superbrands, please contact Gareth Streeter, Nicki Akers or Alan Twigg at Seventy Seven PR on +44 (0)20 7492 0977 or email superbrands@77pr.co.uk.

For more information on BSI Group please contact:

Marc Edney
BSI Group Press Office
Tel: +44 (0)20 8996 6330 (24 hours)
pressoffice@bsigroup.com