An upstart manufacturer of fruit smoothies and a never-knowingly-undersold retailer have edged aside stalwarts such as Marks & Spencer and Virgin from the ranks of Britain's most influential brands as the business community sets greater store by "values".

The environmentally active drinks firm Innocent, which was established by three Cambridge graduates but is now controlled by Coca-Cola, will be named this week as the seventh most significant "thought leadership" brand in Britain in an annual poll that asked 1,000 opinion leaders to identify their top trusted, innovative businesses.

Technology titans Apple and Google occupy the top two slots for the fourth consecutive year as they continue to dominate digital entertainment and online information. But John Lewis, the venerable retailer founded upon a single London drapery in 1864, is a new entry to the list at number three – a reflection of a record year in till receipts both at the partnership's department stores and at its Waitrose supermarkets.

Branding experts say the study is evidence of the mounting importance among consumers of ethics, responsibility and quality in spite of tough economic times.

Robert Jones, a strategist at Wolff Olins, says: "Consumers are looking for a little more than just the lowest price. They're looking for brands that do something, rather than just say something all the time – and those that are able to identify with that are going to be influential."

Despite high unemployment, weak house prices and public sector cuts, shoppers are, Jones says, still willing to pay a premium for some things: "In tough times, people look for certain types of reassurance as treats. These are economic comfort foods that we still look to in chilly economic times."

The research, carried out by Populus and YouGov for TLG Communications, canvasses individuals in the media, politics, business and not-for-profit organisations.

For the first time in the study's four-year history, Marks & Spencer has dropped out of the UK top 10 – a reflection, perhaps, of confusion about the chain's identity as new boss Marc Bolland rings the changes to try to reinvigorate sales.

The Virgin group has also slipped, following a year of relatively few headline-grabbing stunts by Sir Richard Branson.

On the American list of influential brands, technology companies have an even greater dominance, with microchip maker Intel and Research in Motion, manufacturer of the BlackBerry, high on the list alongside Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, Facebook and Amazon.

Innocent, the smallest company to feature the British list, was set up by former advertising executive Richard Reed and two friends who decided to try selling fruit smoothies on a stall at a London music festival in 1998.

The self-consciously quirky firm, which describes its headquarters as Fruit Towers and encourages customers to call its "banana phone" for advice, has seen its annual sales exceed £100m but faced criticism from certain aficionados for "selling out" to Coca-Cola earlier this year. One Facebook group urged the firm to "give back Coca-Cola's dirty money", fearing that multinational ownership could dilute its ethical stance.

John Lewis has a similarly anti-corporate image thanks to its unusual partnership structure. John Lewis's chairman, Charlie Mayfield, says that his brand's new prominence on the list might be partly down to an understanding among shoppers that the business's ownership and profits are shared by 69,000 staff.

"This comes at a time when lots of people are looking for new ways to do business, and are dissatisfied with older models," says Mayfield. "That has been stoked by some of the really significant problems we've been facing elsewhere in the economy."

John Lewis has enjoyed a bumper year with sales having risen by 11% to almost £3bn. Mayfield says the majority of customers are aware of the chain's unusual structure: "Most shoppers will not be able to describe the detailed structure of the partnership but they'll say they have heard it's a good place to work, that we look after our staff well. There's an understanding that we have an ownership that has a slightly different outcome from elsewhere."

One distinctively British name has dropped out of sight. BP was rated as the nation's ninth most influential brand as recently as 2008. Tainted by the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the company no longer commands a ranking at all.