RIBA increases position as one of UK's strongest business brands

Date:

25 February 2009

Press office contact:

Melanie Mayfield
T: +44 (0)207 307 3662
E: melanie.mayfield@riba.org

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is one of the UK’s leading brands in the prestigious 2009 annual Business Superbrands list announced today. The announcement follows a robust selection process administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis.

The RIBA has increased its ranking by 54 places in 2009 to become 190th in the Top 500, ahead of businesses such as T-Mobile, Olympus and John Laing. This is the second time the RIBA has featured in the Business Superbrands list; last year the Institute was ranked at no. 244.

The RIBA was assessed using strict judging criteria tapping into the views of an independent and voluntary council of experts and over 1500 business professionals, the latter surveyed by research agency YouGov. Of the thousands of brands considered for inclusion only the top 500 are deemed to be Business Superbrands. As a Business Superbrand, the RIBA is recognised as having the finest reputation in its field; it has also been judged on quality, reliability and distinction.

Speaking about this recognition, Roula Konzotis, RIBA Director of Communications said:

“This is a great accolade for the RIBA group of companies and particularly welcome in 2009, the Institute’s 175th year. Business Superbrand status will help us achieve an even higher profile with the public, our members and with government, as we continue to promote architects, architecture and the benefits to society of good design.”

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Notes to editors

For further information, please contact Melanie Mayfield in the RIBA Press Office on 020 7307 3662 or melanie.mayfield@inst.riba.org|.

2009 marks the 175^th Anniversary of the RIBA. To celebrate this milestone the Institute has planned a programme of special events which look back with pride on some of the most significant achievements of the past while also looking forward to the years ahead. We aim to use our position as the home of architecture in the UK to engage an even wider audience in the vitally important architectural issues which have such a large influence on the way we live and work both now and in the future. Our programme for the year includes major loans to the Palladio 500 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and our collaboration with the Barbican centre to bring the highly-acclaimed exhibition; Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture to London. We are also running a national schools competition in collaboration with Construction Skills to design a new parliament building which coincides with the 175th anniversary of the current Barry/Pugin Palace of Westminster. Our major annual events such as the RIBA Stirling Prize, the Royal Gold Medal and Annual Lecture will also be given special prominence during the year. In raising our profile for our anniversary year we hope to demonstrate better the breadth of our activities and convey our passion for good design and designers, in the built environment. For further information go to www.architecture.com/175|

The Business Superbrands selection process is administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA). The key stages of the selection process are as follows:

TCBA researchers compile a list of the UK's leading business to business brands, drawing on a wide range of sources from sector reports to blogs. From the thousands of brands initially considered, a list of just over 1,100 brands is created.

These brands are scored by the independent and voluntary Expert Council, which is assembled and chaired by TCBA's chief executive. Bearing in mind the given definition of a Business Superbrand (see below), the council members individually award each brand a rating from 1-10. Council members are not allowed to score brands with which they have a direct association or are in competition to. The lowest-scoring brands (approximately 40 per cent) are eliminated at this stage.

The remaining brands are voted on by more than 1,500 individual business professionals – defined as those who have either purchasing or managerial responsibilities. These individuals are accessed via a YouGov panel.

Taking the views of the experts and the business professionals into equal account, a combined score is produced for each brand. This score determines its position in the official league table; only the top 500 brands in that table are deemed to be Business Superbrands.