Apple remains the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand for 2013, worth $185 billion. Apple grew just +1% in the last year compared to a +51% 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% 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, the world’s largest communications services group, and conducted by global research agency 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 Top 100 has grown by 77% 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         Category         Brand       Brand Value  Brand Value    Rank
     2013                                       2013 ($M)     Change       2012
      1          Technology       Apple          185,071       +1%          1
      2          Technology       Google         113,669       +5%          3
      3          Technology       IBM            112,536       -3%          2
      4          Fast Food        McDonald's      90,256       -5%          4
      5          Soft drinks      Coca-Cola       78,415       +6%          6
      6          Telecoms         AT&T            75,507      +10%          8
      7          Technology       Microsoft       69,814       -9%          5
      8          Tobacco          Marlboro        69,383       -6%          7
      9          Credit cards     Visa            56,060      +46%         15
     10          Telecoms         China Mobile    55,368      +18%         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%. Outstripping the performance of all other luxury brands it is now no.4 in the luxury category (95 globally) and worth $9.5 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 Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P500). While the value of the companies in the S&P500 index grew by 23%, the BrandZ portfolio grew by 58%, proving that companies with strong brands are able to deliver better value to their shareholders.
• 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 Top 100, worth 43% 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%, 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.

Source: BrandZ