According to Interbrands 2013 ‘Best Global Brands’ report, Coca-Cola has been replaced as most valuable brand for the first time by Apple! Last year Apple was sitting behind Coca-Cola in second position, but a 28% growth this year leaves Apple smiling, valued at a massive $98,316 billion. Following behind Apple, Google has had an increase of 34% now sitting at a value of $93,291 billion. Coca-Cola only up by 2% this year now sits in third position, valued at $79,213 billion.
Above image source: http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/2013/bgb-interactive-charts.aspx
The Best Global Brand report ranks companies brand value in both “customer and financial terms, measuring the contribution of the brand to business results.” Interbrand measures this by assessing the following three main criteria: 1) The brands financial performance of the branded product and services, 2) The role brands have on influencing customer choice and 3) The strength of the brand relative to competition.
Although it is evident that Apple has had great success this year, its growth rate has actually slowed compared to last years 129% increase. According to Interbrand, Apple’s success is down to “revolutionizing the way we work, play, and communicate—and for mastering the ability to surprise and delight—Apple has set a high bar for aesthetics, simplicity, and ease of use that all other tech brands are now expected to match, and that Apple itself is expected to continually exceed.” This success comes despite strong competition over the last year, “Samsung is now the world’s most profitable smartphone manufacturer, Google has expanded Android and its maps still seem to be the ‘preferred’ route, and Windows Phone 8 certainly raised more than a few eyebrows.”
The top risers in the report are Facebook (43%), Google (34%), Prada (30%), Apple (28%) and Amazon (27%).
Nokia saw the biggest decline in brand value dropping by a huge 65%. Interbrand comments that “while Nokia’s hardware designs earn positive reviews, its software tends to fall short of expectations, which is problematic at a time when competitors are stepping up their game in this area.” Nokia’s devices and services business was bought by Microsoft at the start of the month.
Check out the Best Global Brands full report here: www.interbrand.com
You can see last years results here: http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/previous-years/2012/Best-Global-Brands-2012-Brand-View.aspx