Personal power brands

Last friday as i was walking back from the shop a car beeped as it went by and a disembodied voice called out of the window "you know coca cola's bad for you". Well as it turned out it was one of my lecturers referring to the drink i had in my hand...but with one mistake. I was actually carrying a bottle of pepsi. I don't deny that driving and the short amount of time he had to look made observation difficult but it did get me thinking.

Do we all have our own power-brands in our heads? Dependant on what brands we have grown up with, the brands whose values we admire, or simply the most powerful brands as we perceive them. As the books say the value of the brand is in the minds of the consumers who value it so it would be interesting to see the results of an experiment. Similar to a word association test using pictures or descriptions of objects to see what peoples own power-brands are, and the value they hold for them. For example, music computer and phone technology, would they hold apple at the top of its class?