Ransom Stats #11

Does my brand look big in this?

Millward Brown – the company responsible for among other things the UK singles and album charts – has this week published it’s annual list of the top 100 most valuable global brands. The Brandz Top 100 as they like to call it uses data collected on behalf of WPP and taps into the proprietary valuation method of Millward Brown Optimor to give us the annual list.

But what does it actually show. Apart from the list itself – which we’ll come to in a minute – the most promising sign is growth, albeit on small scale. After a static period that saw a negligible increase in value in the BrandZ Top 100, this year we can see a reassuring 7 percent increase to $2.6 trillion with all but two out of the 13 categories analyzed improving in brand value – Technology and oil and gas declined by 1 percent and 4 percent respectively.

Consumer categories lead the charge with the strongest brand value appreciation, despite the current economic difficulties in Europe and the slowdown in the BRIC mark. Within this Apparel accounted for the highest growth area increasing by 21 percent following a rise of 13 percent last year. 

Financial brands also saw improvement with many any of the banks growing significantly in brand value. Citing “new, successful initiatives to drive revenue in a more regulated, low interest rate environment” as the main driver they were able to regain some of the value lost after the global financial crisis – and as a result accounted for almost 20 percent of the brand value of the BrandZ Top 100, the second highest grouping after technology.

So how does the list look? Unsurprisingly Apple are at the top despite a sharp decline in the growth of its brand value last year. Holding on to the top spot on the strength of the ‘meaningful difference’ of its brand, not to mention a brand value of $185 Million. Google moved to the number two position, marginally beating IBM – $113 Million to $112 Million respectively –  which continues to be the worlds most valuable B2B brand. The rest of the top ten is made up of McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Microsoft, Marlboro, Visa and China Mobile – you can see the full list here.

Prada – 95 on the list – was the highest appreciator rising 63 percent in brand value, leading all other brands in the rate of brand value growth. In apparel Zara took over Nike on the top spot and Amazon and HSBC lead in retail and banking.

Overall no big surprises then – although it’s interesting to see the fastest growing markets represented are China with 12 brands and Russia and India both with 2 – but it’s the signs of growth in sectors that until recently have been all but static that are most promising, hopefully signally the start of things to come.

Thanks to Millward brown for the basis of all of the above.

Ian Pither (Ransom Statistician)