Interbrand annually publishes a non-industry specific report on the Best Global Brands, ranked by “brand valuation”. This year, Lexus rings in at 92, same as last year, and was 10th overall in car brands.

Much ado was given to Hyundai’s ranking, placing at the 72 position, above Porsche and Lexus. It can hardly be considered a surprise, though, when you consider that this is a global study, including South Korea, where Hyundai is a dominant force, whereas Lexus has only started expanding worldwide. Nevermind that it’s an offshoot of much larger company (Toyota, which ranked #6 overall, and #1 in the automotive industry), which would be a much better comparison to Hyundai.

More surprising is Nissan’s rank at 98, slipping eight spots and threatening to leave the list all together.

The U.S. Women’s Open is coming up, and in a mirror of their previous mens survey, Lexus quizzed women golfers about their commitment to the game. The results are surprisingly similar:

• Women are spending even more hours than men on the driving range (5 vs. 4 hours)
• Thirteen percent of women golfers would give up their hair for the perfect swing.
• One out of three women golfers say they prefer to play with golfers who are better than they are (38%).
• One out of four women golfers say they would rather have the perfect golf swing than the perfect marriage (27%)
• 52% of women golfers check to see how many bags of clubs can fit in the trunk of a car before they buy it.
• 43% of women who golf say the sport has improved their relationship with their significant other.
• More than six out of ten women golfers say their friendships have benefited because of golf (63%) and another 23% age 18-39 say their pursuit of golf has benefited their job performance.

[Source: Auto Spectator]

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has given us more insight into Lexus’ presence at the U.S. Open:

The U.S. Open at Oakmont marked the first time the USGA has used corporate sponsors in its history, and in the 107-year history of the Open.

“American Express was the only other sponsor,” noted Vince Salisbury, event marketing manager for Lexus. In the past, when players arrived at the airport they would just use a rental car, so every player was in a different car.

“There was no consistency and it was more complicated,” said Salisbury. “Part of the agreement with Lexus was that we would provide cars for all the players and USGA officials. The cars were prepared with decals on the front doors that say “Official car of the U.S. Open,” with that great squirrel logo.”

Also mentioned was an aspect of the car lending that I didn’t even consider:

The concept of the Lexus luxury lifestyle was clearly imparted because the company got inquiries all week about the cars. “People were asking for particular ones, especially if they were driven by particular players. Unfortunately our distribution doesn’t really allow for that. Of course they wanted us to leave the decal on!” [ Lexus event marketing manager Vince] Salisbury said, laughing.

Of course people would want cars driven by their favorite players in the event — Too bad Lexus couldn’t accommodate them.

An interesting discussion has popped up over @ Club Lexus: Should Lexus remove the word “Lexus” from their vehicles?

Most users (65% at last glace) like the name badge, and I have to agree. The balance of the Lexus badge, the big L logo and the model name is perfect to me, and should be considered a Lexus trademark, not a flaw. Another thing to consider when looking at competitors: BMW includes their full name in their logo badge, and could you imagine squeezing Mercedes-Benz on the back of any car?

What’s your opinion? Jump on over to the Club Lexus forums to share your thoughts, or leave them here in the comments.

Rounding out this week of surveys and studies is a rather strange birdie — Lexus, as the first ever automotive partner of the United States Golfing Association (USGA), conducted a survey of golfers and found themselves looking in a mirror. It seems like Lexus and golfers have that very same relentless pursuit of perfection:

• Four out of ten golfers (43%) would readily give up sex for a month in order to have the perfect golf swing! (And more than one in five — 22% — would give up their hair!)
• Another 21% would be willing to sacrifice their next raise for the perfect swing.
• Three out of ten golfers say if they had to choose, they’d rather have a perfect golf swing than a perfect marriage.
• Two out of three golfers have skipped work in order to play golf (66%). More than four out of ten have skipped church or religious services (43%), and a similar percentage have bailed out on a family gathering (41%).
• Nearly one out of every two golfers (49%) says when buying a car they check to see how many bags of clubs can fit into the trunk.

The phrasing of the results is a little misleading: Is it so hard to believe that people would sacrifice their hair or their next raise to be actually be “perfect” at something?

[Source: PR Newswire]

The global economy in effect or the growing geographic ineptitude of America?

An Anderson Analytics survey asked 1,000 U.S. college students to name the county-of-origin of particular brands, one of which was Lexus. 33.7% of the respondents believed it to be an American company, with 37.3% correctly identifying the country-of-origin as Japan. Not a particularly poor result, especially in light of the other misidentified brands — only 16.8% of people correctly identified Volvo as Swedish, and 58.4% guessed Land Rover was American.

Some took this as an opportunity to attack American youth and their lack of knowledge, but it seems unfair considering the volume of brands that exist in the world today. Should students really make a point of learning where cars come from? Cell phones?

Unfair, that is, until you find out that half of American students can’t find New York on a map.

[Source: Carscoop]