Consultancy firm Millward Brown recently published a report on the BrandZ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands Ranking. In 2008, four Spanish brands – Santander, Zara, BBVA and Telefónica Móviles –made the ranking, twice more than the previous year.

According to the ranking, the most powerful Spanish brand, at number 48, and with a value of 14,549 million dollars, is Banco Santander, which is down one place from the previous year. Furthermore, Zara, with a value of 8,682 million dollars, climbed six positions to number 84.The two new Spanish brands to make the ranking were BBVA and Telefónica Móviles, which came in at numbers 77 and 88 and have a brand value of 9,457 and 8,117 million dollars, respectively.

The world’s five most powerful brands hold their positions, with Google topping the ranking once again, followed by General Electric, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and China Mobile. IBM came in at number 6, followed by Apple at number 7, which climbed nine places and, with a brand value increase of 123%, was one of the biggest risers in the ranking, thanks to the launch of the iPod and iPhone.

However, one of the most spectacular entries in the BrandZ ranking was BlackBerry, which entered at number 51, thanks to a brand value increase of 390% over the previous year.

On the other hand, Chinese brands continue to get stronger according to the latest BrandZ ranking, with four Chinese brands making this year’s top 100 list - China Mobile (5), ICBC (18), Bank of China (32) and China Construction Bank (31). This year, a Russian brand made the ranking for the first time, and the researchers expect to see countries from emerging markets, such as Brazil and India, make the ranking in the coming years.