Apple Remains No.1 in The Brandz Top 100 Ranking of the Most Valuable Global Brands

Despite circulating tax questions, Apple remains the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand for 2013, worth $185 billion. Apple grew just +1 percent in the last year compared to a +51 percent growth for its closest competitor, Samsung, which is now No.30 in the global ranking with a brand value of $21 billion.

 

Google is also a serious challenger for the no.1 spot, reversing last year’s decline to grow +5 percent in brand value this year. The brand is no.2 in the ranking with a value of $114 billion. IBM is no.3 in the ranking with a brand value of $112 billion.

“Vying for leadership in the smartphone market, Samsung fuelled its huge increase in brand value by balancing a remarkable period of innovation with growing market share – it spent $1.6 billion more on advertising in the last year,” said Nick Cooper, Managing Director of Millward Brown Optimor. “Despite a more competitive marketplace and other challengers nipping at its heels, Apple’s ability to maintain its no.1 position demonstrates the value that having a strong brand brings to business. People still love the brand regardless of its stock price.”

The BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study, commissioned by WPP and conducted by Millward Brown Optimor, is now in its eighth year. It is the only ranking that uses the views of potential and current buyers of a brand, alongside financial data, to calculate its value.

The combined value of the Top100 has grown by 77 percent since 2006. They are now worth $2.6 trillion.

David Roth, CEO of The Store at WPP, said: “This year’s ranking highlights the return on investment that brands give businesses. It shows that strong brands bring market share growth, increased profits from being able to command a price premium and greater shareholder returns.”

Eileen Campbell, Global CEO of brand research company Millward Brown added: “Brand valuation and other measures that show return on marketing investment give marketers a stronger voice in the boardroom by ensuring that marketing is better understood and accounted for as a key driver of financial and business success.”

The Top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands 2013

Rank 2013	Category	Brand	Brand Value 2013 ($M)	Brand Value Change	Rank 2012
1	Technology	Apple	185,071	+1 percent	1
2	Technology	Google	113,669	+5 percent	3
3	Technology	IBM	112,536	-3 percent	2
4	Fast Food	McDonald’s	90,256	-5 percent	4
5	Soft drinks	Coca-Cola	78,415	+6 percent	6
6	Telecoms	AT&T	75,507	+10 percent	8
7	Technology	Microsoft	69,814	-9 percent	5
8	Tobacco	Marlboro	69,383	-6 percent	7
9	Credit cards	Visa	56,060	+46 percent	15
10	Telecoms	China Mobile	55,368	+18 percent	10

Key findings highlighted in this year’s research report include:

• Top risers provide meaningful differentiation: The Top 10 brand value growth risers score significantly higher than average on the BrandZ equity measures of Meaningful, Different and Salient. Prada grew the most in brand value, by +63 percent. Outstripping the performance of all other luxury brands it is now no.4 in the luxury category (95 globally) and worth $9.5 billion.

• Brewers experienced a rapid rise: The world’s most widely consumed alcoholic beverage, beer, was the highest growth category in the rankings this year. The Top 10 beer brands grew by +36 percent and are now worth a combined $63 billion. The sector has benefited from growing sales in Latin America and China. Global brewer Heineken is the third largest beer brand worth $8 billion, and profited from publicity around the James Bond Skyfall movie. Brazil’s Brahma beer grew by +61 percent in the last year and is worth $4 billion.

• High value brands provide faster growth: An analysis of the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands as a ‘stock portfolio’ over the last eight years shows a highly favorable performance compared to a current stock market index, the S&P500. While the value of the companies in the S&P500 index grew by 23 percent, the BrandZ™ portfolio grew by 58 percent, proving that companies with strong brands are able to deliver better value to their shareholders. A graphic is available here.

• As technology brands continue to dominate the ranking the sun rises on digital China: Technology and telecoms brands continue to dominate the ranking with 29 brands in the global BrandZ™ Top100, worth 43 percent of the total value of the Top 100, more than $1 trillion. Growth in this sector remains flat. In contrast to a decline in Facebook’s brand value, its Chinese equivalent, Tencent, rose 52 percent, making it one of the Top 10 risers in the ranking with almost 800 million active users. Yahoo also joins the ranking after the appointment of a new CEO from Google lifted expectations and share price which drove the appreciation of brand value.

The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study is available online. It includes a ranking and analysis of the most valuable brands for key regions of the world and 13 market sectors. Download the complete BrandZ™ ranking here, including regional and category breakdowns, and in-depth insights from WPP companies. The rankings and a great deal more brand insight are also available as a free interactive mobile app for Apple and Android and as an iPad magazine.

About the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands Ranking

Developed for WPP’s operating companies by Millward Brown Optimor, the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking is now in its eighth year. It is the only study to combine measures of brand equity based on interviews with over two million consumers globally about thousands of global ‘consumer facing’ and business-to-business brands with a rigorous analysis of the financial and business performance of each company (using data from Bloomberg and Kantar Worldpanel) to separate the value that brand plays in driving business revenue and market capitalization. Consumer perception of a brand is a key input in determining brand value because brands are a combination of business performance, product delivery, clarity of positioning, and leadership. The ranking takes into account regional variations since, even for truly global brands, measures of brand contribution might differ substantially across countries.

About Millward Brown

Millward Brown is a leading global research agency specializing in effective advertising, strategic communication, media and brand equity research. Millward Brown has helped its clients build strong brands and services through a set of comprehensive research-based –qualitative and quantitative solutions. It has 86 offices in 56 countries. Additional specialist practices include Dynamic Logic (global leader in measuring digital marketing effectiveness), a network of media experts (measuring media effectiveness), Firefly Millward Brown (our global qualitative network), The Neuroscience Practice (using neuroscience to optimize the value of traditional research techniques) and Millward Brown Optimor (focused on supporting clients to maximize their return on brand and marketing investments). Millward Brown is part of Kantar, the insights, information and consultancy division of WPP.

About WPP

WPP is the world’s largest communications services group with billings of $70.5 billion and revenues of $16.5 billion.  Through its operating companies, the Group provides a comprehensive range of advertising and marketing services including advertising & media investment management; consumer insight; public relations and public affairs; branding and identity; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion and relationship marketing; and specialist communications. The company employs over 165,000 people (including associates) in over 3,000 offices across 110 countries.  www.wpp.com.

WPP was named Holding Company of the Year at the 2012 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the second year running, since the award was initiated.