(FORTUNE Magazine) – Quick, what is the most powerful brand name in America? If you said, ''Coke is it,'' you're right, according to Landor Associates, a San Francisco design and image-consulting firm. Landor queried more than 1,000 U.S. consumers about their recognition and opinion of 672 brand names and tallied the results to produce its new ''brand power'' ranking. Coca-Cola is so powerful it's practically off the charts. It is both the best known and most esteemed brand in America, and its overall score beat No. 2 Campbell's Soup by a greater margin than Campbell's beat No. 50, Dole. Other overall scores shed new light on old rivalries. Colgate (No. 35) nipped P&G's Crest (39); Mobil (82) outgassed Texaco (126) and Shell (150); Hershey's (12) beat Mars Inc.'s M&M's (42); NBC (13) outscored CBS (32) and ABC (47). What accounts for brand power? Most of the top finishers have been around for decades. Some names -- such as Levi's, Kleenex, and Xerox, all in the top 30 -- are practically synonymous with their markets. Others are simply the product of superb salesmanship. For example, Philip Morris's Marlboro cigarette is 92 places ahead of RJR Nabisco's Winston. Heavy advertising won't do the job by itself. Wendy's, Greyhound, and Volkswagen are among the 100 biggest advertisers on the list, but none makes the top 100 in brand power. Other brands are perhaps more infamous than famous. Playboy was 58th in recognition -- but 670th in esteem.

BOX: AMERICA'S MOST POWERFUL BRANDS Coca-Cola Campbell's Pepsi-Cola AT&T McDonald's American Express Kellogg's IBM Levi's Sears

LEAST POWERFUL Export ''A'' Canadian cigarettes Klipsch Loudspeakers Primerica Diversified financial services Bang & Olufsen Danish consumer electronics Asahi Japanese beer Blue Mountain Pet food Daewoo Korean indus. prod., electronics Gaggenau German cooking equipment Ricola Swiss cough drops Exide Batteries