Ingram's August 2022

Washington University Missouri, as we’ve seen, has no shortage of brands that resonate globally. Washington University in St. Louis is no exception. How do we back up that claim? Consider the expertise of U.S. News & World Report with its annual rankings in higher education. Most recently, it bumped WashU up two spots within its Top 20 nationwide, ranking it No. 14. That placed it ahead of Notre Dame, UCLA, Cal-Berkeley, Mich igan, Southern Cal, and a host of other “name” universities in America. It’s a crown jewel of ac ademic study, research, and service for St. Louis

and Missouri. Forming its pillars of instructional excellence disciplines are Art & Architecture, Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Social Work, Public Health, Continuing Educa tion, and perhaps the best-known program of its kind in the Midwest, the Olin School of Business. An almost-unheard-of student-to-faculty ratio of 7:1 is a big selling point with prospective stu dents, and graduate programs account for more than half of the nearly 16,000 students enrolled there. That makes the university a huge talent generator for the Show-Me State.

Methodology Top brands, as a rule, are usually strong enough to retain that status from year to year, but that doesn’t gift any company a spot on this list. This time around, changes in the world of sports and higher education brought new faces to the list. (It’s hard to argue, for example, that the Kansas City Chiefs brand hasn’t evolved during the Patrick Mahomes Era.) For this project, we consider brand-value ratings assigned by marketing trade organizations, revenues, employment numbers and civic engagement of the leadership of the candidate com panies to produce a structure that helps identify Missouri’s top brands.

But when the number is fixed at 25, some big players, by defi nition, must be left out. Among those, in the financial services world, are iconic names like UMB, or in the case of manufacturing, Olin Corp., cereal maker Post Holdings and electrical/communica tions distributor Graybar Electric. All could have a claim to brand fame here. Same for Lockton Companies, Shelter Insurance and Reinsurance Group of America in the risk-management and benefits consultancy worlds, or Drury Inns and Silver Dollar City in the hospitality and entertainment sectors. Those companies, and many others, will continue to be candi dates for future installments of Top 25 Brands in Missouri.

Show-Me Publishing, Inc. is proud to publish Ingram’s for the past quarter century and to have launched and published St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles and Saint Louis Bride magazines. Each of these 450 magazines since 1992 have proudly been published in Missouri. We’re pleased to call this great state our home and it’s our privilege to serve as a steward of business throughout Missouri and the surrounding region. — Joe Sweeney , Editor-in-Chief and Publisher

Bartimus Frickleton Robertson Rader Barlett & West Big Thunder Marine Block Real Estate Services Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City BrokerTech Ventures Collision Leaders Commerce Bank DeBruce Foundation EAG Advertising Edward Jones Explore St. Louis First Mortgage Direct/Bison State Bank Global Prairie Hillyard We Appreciate Our Advertisers:

Russell Cellular Saint Luke’s Health System

Holmes Murphy Husch Blackwell Kessinger Hunter Lake of the Ozarks Lodging.com McGull Law Firm Meirotto Jewelers Meridian Business Solutions Midway Truck Center Missouri Realtors Missouri Western State University Moneta Newmark Zimmer Pebble Bay Club

Salvation Army Security Benefit St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce Sweeney Properties Thompson Coburn Visit Table Rock Lake Special Thanks to Our Marquee Sponsor

Polsinelli RE/MAX

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