In the modern world of developed capitalism, the value of large brands is in the tens or even hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars. And if you want to know how much money will have to save to buy, for example, a Google brand, then Brand Finance, the world's leading independent brand valuation consultant, answers this question every year. So this year he presented his annual report on the most valuable brands in the world... And we present it to your attention, having collected details about the top 10 leaders of the list.
10. China Construction Bank - $ 69.7 billion
The top ten is opened by one of most expensive banking brands in the world and, concurrently, one of the four largest banks in the Middle Kingdom. Chinese bankers don't waste their time on trifles; the CCB brand grew by 23% in just a year. This success can be attributed to pioneering developments in digital banking.
As a pioneer in China's banking landscape, CCB also opened the doors of its first robot-operated self-service bank branch - almost like a science fiction movie, but without the machine uprising. This department has introduced such innovations as a face recognition system, artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
9. Verizon - $ 71.1 billion
One of only two US telecommunications companies in the top ten.
Verizon's brand value is up 13.3% from the previous year. However, many large and small competitors, such as T-mobile, breathe in his back.
8. ICBC - $ 79.8 billion
China's most valuable brand is banking giant ICBC, headquartered in Beijing. The brand's value grew by almost 35% between 2018 and early 2019. As the world's largest lender by assets, ICBC has more than tripled the number of its overseas sales outlets in the past 10 years. Now there are about 400 of them around the world.
7. Facebook - $ 83.2 billion
Although the company that donated one of the most popular social networks to the Internet ranked 7th in the rankings, its overall strength has declined. Thus, Facebook showed the second worst result in the top 100 most valuable brands in 2019, having reduced its value by 11%.
After a string of scandals including data abuse at Cambridge Analytica and the spread of fake news, it's no surprise that the brand is in serious trouble. Reputation is easy to lose, and in order to restore it, Facebook will have to demonstrate that it cares about the security of data processing and can prevent the spread of misinformation.
6. AT&T - $ 87 billion
Although the American telecommunications company has moved up from fifth to sixth position, it has added 5.6% to its value this year. AT&T is currently the most valuable telecommunications brand in the world. However, most American brands are not growing, but losing value, as competition from Internet giants is very high. More and more customers are choosing to use the services of Internet services for voice and video communication in order to stay in touch.
5. Samsung - $ 91.2 billion
Unlike the first four positions in the ranking, which either retained their places or moved closer to the leader, one of the most influential technology companies in the world has lost its position. True, only one line, becoming the fifth instead of the fourth number in the list. Its value has decreased by 1.1%. Nevertheless, Samsung has become the only non-US enterprise in the top five most valuable brands in the world.
“The company's mobile phone sales fell short of expectations as the Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9 were not competitive enough in the high-end market and the company also lost ground in the mid-to-low-end smartphone market,” Brand Finance said in a report.
4. Microsoft - $ 119.5 billion
One of the brands that triumphantly returned to the "big five" is the world famous corporation Microsoft. Compared to the previous year, it rose from 6th to 4th place in the Brand Finance Global 500. The brand value grew by 47% to $ 119.59 billion; and so far Microsoft is the fastest growing brand among the top 10 most valuable.
The cloud business model has proved to be very successful for the corporation, and in 2018 its revenue grew by 17%. While it once seemed like Microsoft was out of the game, its determination to adapt to the latest business trends is a great example of how a brand can use change to its advantage. Complacency can be detrimental, however, as even successful tech giants often face obstacles from startups and competing brands.
3. Google - $ 142.7 billion
By maintaining its presence in the top 3 high-value brands, Google is a testament to how important it is for a company to leverage technological innovation to remain valuable in the eyes of customers and consumers. The company continues to dominate the search engine sector and has gained 18.1% overall.
2. Apple - $ 153.6 billion
The world's most valuable apple is struggling to grow in key emerging markets and is showing little incentive to diversify its portfolio.
While Apple ranked second among heavyweight brands in 2019, its results are far from solid. She lost to Google in 2017, and then to Amazon. We can only see whether the Cupertino company will share the fate of Walmart, which dropped out of the top ten. After all, dependence on phone sales threatens Apple's long-term prosperity.
1. Amazon - $ 187.9 billion
This company retains its title of the most valuable brand in the world. As of 2019, its value increased by almost 25% to an impressive $ 187.9 billion.
Amazon has had an exceptionally good year last year, with over 100 million products purchased on Prime Day. Soon after, the brand crossed the $ 1 trillion threshold on Wall Street for the first time in its history.
David Haye
CEO Brand Finance
“As Amazon steadily expands into new sectors, its brand value is in a good position to grow. However, the controversial public reception of the recently announced high-profile divorce of its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos calls into question (brand) reputation, and a potential change in the composition of shareholders threatens the company's stability. If not done correctly, the split process can cost a brand well over $ 10 billion, and the range of losses is expected to be 5-10% of Amazon's current brand value. ”
An alternative measure of brand is “strength” rather than “value”. The Brand Strength Index score takes into account marketing investment, equity and business performance. For this alternative indicator, Ferrari came out on top. And the largest bank in Russia, Sberbank, turned out to be the second most powerful brand in the world and the 20th in value. However, ordinary Russians can only get moral pleasure from this achievement. It's nice that at least somewhere we are still among the first.
Apart from Sberbank, there are no Russian brands in the top 100 Brand Finance. To see them, you must go down to line 122 (VTB Bank), line 210 (Gazprombank), position 286 (Alfa-Bank) and position 491 (Promsvyazbank).