April 2009
The fourth annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking has been released by Millward Brown Optimor and it reveals that brands sustain their value, despite the tough economic environment.
The value of the Top 100 brands has held its value at $1.95 tn (a marginal increase of 1.7 per cent versus last year). Google is number one with a value of $100 bn, Microsoft is number two at $76.2 bn, and Coca-Cola moves into the top three for the first time at $67.6 bn.
The BrandZ Top 100 ranking identifies the dollar value of brands. It does this by combining financial data with research on consumers and business-to-business users from BrandZ, the world’s largest annual brand equity study.
Eight of the Top 10 most valuable global brands are North American-based, and when looking at brand value by region, Wal-Mart takes the ninth position and BlackBerry is number 10 within North America.
“In the current environment, where the value of many businesses has fallen, brand has become even more important because it can help to sustain companies in tough times,” said Joanna Seddon, CEO Millward Brown Optimor.
“Those who continue to invest in their brand will be better positioned for business growth as the economic situation starts to improve than those who have cut spend.”
There are 15 new brands entering the ranking this year. Pampers is the highest entrant at no. 31, followed by Nintendo (no.32) and VISA (no.36). Trends identified from this year’s rankings are:
Value Brands that represent good value for money have done well. This is about quality as much as price, for example Wal-Mart is up (+19 per cent), ALDI (+49 per cent), and Auchan, a European retail chain, (+48 per cent), while H&M (+8 per cent) is now the number one apparel brand.
Vice People still reward themselves with small indulgences when money is tight. Brands such as McDonald’s (+34 per cent), Marlboro (+33 per cent) and Budweiser (+23 per cent) have all done well.
At Home Brands that can be experienced at home have also shown strong growth. This includes home shopping: Amazon (+85 per cent) and eBay (+16 per cent); Coffee that can be prepared at home: Nespresso (+27 per cent) and Nescafé (+23 per cent); and gaming—Nintendo entered the ranking for the first time at no. 32.
Wireless The increased popularity of accessing the Internet through portable devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry has led to huge increases for the mobile operators category as a whole, driven by demand for data services. Vodafone enters the top 10 this year (+45 per cent).
"At a time when marketing spend is under greater scrutiny than ever, this ranking is a way for marketers to identify the value that their brand is creating for the business,” said Eileen Campbell, Global CEO of Millward Brown.
"We congratulate all companies with brands in this year’s BrandZ Ranking. Being one of the world’s most valuable brands demonstrates strong brand and business management," added Campbell.
The complete BrandZ ranking, including regional and category breakdowns, is available online: www.millwardbrown.com/brandz.
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