Elevate or Vanish research · 2026-11-01

The Vanish Test: which of 2006's biggest brands does AI no longer name?

In 2006, Interbrand ranked the 100 most valuable brands in the world. Twenty years later, customers ask AI assistants where to shop. We asked one, 3 times, for the leading brands in each of those brands' categories.

5of the 2006 top 100 were not named in their own category, in any ask

5were named only some of the time

90were named every time

Not named

2006 rank	Brand	Category asked	Named
6	Nokia	mobile phones	0 of 3
21	Merrill Lynch	investment brokerage	0 of 3
90	Nissan	cars	0 of 3
97	Armani	luxury fashion	0 of 3
99	Nivea	skin care	0 of 3

Named some of the time

2006 rank	Brand	Category asked	Named
4	GE	home appliances and industrial equipment	2 of 3
28	HSBC	banks	2 of 3
85	ING	banks and insurance	1 of 3
88	Johnson&Johnson	baby care and health products	2 of 3
98	Burberry	luxury fashion	2 of 3

For the CMO who has to explain this upstairs. The Marketing Helix wrote a one-page memo on why brand decides whether AI names a company, built to be forwarded to a CEO. Read the CEO memo.

All 100

2006 rank	Brand	Category asked	Named
1	Coca-Cola	soft drinks (cola)	3 of 3
2	Microsoft	computer operating systems and office software	3 of 3
3	IBM	business computing and IT services	3 of 3
4	GE	home appliances and industrial equipment	2 of 3
5	Intel	computer processors (chips)	3 of 3
6	Nokia	mobile phones	0 of 3
7	Toyota	cars	3 of 3
8	Disney	family entertainment, movies and theme parks	3 of 3
9	McDonald's	fast food	3 of 3
10	Mercedes-Benz	luxury cars	3 of 3
11	Citi	banks and credit cards	3 of 3
12	Marlboro	cigarettes	3 of 3
13	Hewlett-Packard	computers and printers	3 of 3
14	American Express	credit cards	3 of 3
15	BMW	luxury cars	3 of 3
16	Gillette	razors	3 of 3
17	Louis Vuitton	luxury handbags and fashion	3 of 3
18	Cisco	networking equipment	3 of 3
19	Honda	cars	3 of 3
20	Samsung	consumer electronics and mobile phones	3 of 3
21	Merrill Lynch	investment brokerage	0 of 3
22	Pepsi	soft drinks (cola)	3 of 3
23	Nescafe	instant coffee	3 of 3
24	Google	search engines	3 of 3
25	Dell	personal computers	3 of 3
26	Sony	consumer electronics (TVs, game consoles)	3 of 3
27	Budweiser	beer	3 of 3
28	HSBC	banks	2 of 3
29	Oracle	business database software	3 of 3
30	Ford	cars and trucks	3 of 3
31	Nike	sportswear and athletic shoes	3 of 3
32	UPS	package delivery	3 of 3
33	JPMorgan	banks and investment banking	3 of 3
34	SAP	business software	3 of 3
35	Canon	cameras and printers	3 of 3
36	Morgan Stanley	investment banking and brokerage	3 of 3
37	Goldman Sachs	investment banking	3 of 3
38	Pfizer	prescription drugs	3 of 3
39	Apple	computers and digital music players	3 of 3
40	Kellogg's	breakfast cereal	3 of 3
41	IKEA	furniture	3 of 3
42	UBS	banks and wealth management	3 of 3
43	Novartis	prescription drugs	3 of 3
44	Siemens	industrial and electrical equipment	3 of 3
45	Harley-Davidson	motorcycles	3 of 3
46	Gucci	luxury fashion	3 of 3
47	eBay	online marketplaces	3 of 3
48	Philips	consumer electronics and lighting	3 of 3
49	Accenture	business consulting	3 of 3
50	MTV	music television	3 of 3
51	Nintendo	video game consoles	3 of 3
52	Gap	clothing stores	3 of 3
53	L'Oreal	cosmetics and beauty products	3 of 3
54	Heinz	ketchup and packaged food	3 of 3
55	Yahoo!	web portals and search engines	3 of 3
56	Volkswagen	cars	3 of 3
57	Xerox	copiers and office printers	3 of 3
58	Colgate	toothpaste and oral care	3 of 3
59	Wrigley's	chewing gum	3 of 3
60	KFC	fast food (fried chicken)	3 of 3
61	Chanel	luxury perfume and fashion	3 of 3
62	Avon	cosmetics sold direct	3 of 3
63	Nestle	packaged food and chocolate	3 of 3
64	Kleenex	facial tissues	3 of 3
65	Amazon.com	online shopping	3 of 3
66	Pizza Hut	pizza restaurants	3 of 3
67	Danone	yogurt and dairy	3 of 3
68	Caterpillar	construction equipment	3 of 3
69	Motorola	mobile phones	3 of 3
70	Kodak	cameras and film	3 of 3
71	Adidas	sportswear and athletic shoes	3 of 3
72	Rolex	luxury watches	3 of 3
73	Zara	clothing stores	3 of 3
74	Audi	luxury cars	3 of 3
75	Hyundai	cars	3 of 3
76	BP	gasoline and oil	3 of 3
77	Panasonic	consumer electronics	3 of 3
78	Reuters	news agencies and financial news	3 of 3
79	Kraft	packaged food and cheese	3 of 3
80	Porsche	sports cars	3 of 3
81	Hermes	luxury fashion and accessories	3 of 3
82	Tiffany & Co.	jewelry	3 of 3
83	Hennessy	cognac	3 of 3
84	Duracell	batteries	3 of 3
85	ING	banks and insurance	1 of 3
86	Cartier	jewelry and watches	3 of 3
87	Moet & Chandon	champagne	3 of 3
88	Johnson&Johnson	baby care and health products	2 of 3
89	Shell	gasoline and oil	3 of 3
90	Nissan	cars	0 of 3
91	Starbucks	coffee shops	3 of 3
92	Lexus	luxury cars	3 of 3
93	Smirnoff	vodka	3 of 3
94	LG	consumer electronics and mobile phones	3 of 3
95	Bulgari	jewelry and luxury watches	3 of 3
96	Prada	luxury fashion	3 of 3
97	Armani	luxury fashion	0 of 3
98	Burberry	luxury fashion	2 of 3
99	Nivea	skin care	0 of 3
100	Levi's	jeans	3 of 3

How the test was run

The 2006 list is Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2006 (archived Interbrand ranking, with names from the BusinessWeek scoreboard of August 7, 2006). For each brand we wrote the everyday category a shopper would ask about. On 2026-11-01 an AI assistant, Claude (Anthropic), Opus, no web search, via Claude Code, was asked "What are the leading brands in <category> right now?" for every category, 3 separate times, answering from its own knowledge. A brand counts as not named only if it was missing from its own category every time. Sub-brands are not counted as the parent (Merrill Edge is not Merrill Lynch). One assistant, one day: the test is repeated, and every run is kept.