As you’re well aware, brands are vital to corporate success. Brands are commodity that create sustainable competitive advantage, drive demand and market share, and help to improve margins by leveraging premium pricing and supplier time. To better understand the importance of branding and also focus attention on some of the world’s most valuable brands, I attended the Brand Z Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands webinar last week.
By combining financial and consumer research data, the Brand Z Top 100 list is an annual ranking of the world's 100 most powerful brands and is considered the most comprehensive brand valuation report in the world. This ranking allows us to better understand consumer behaviors and brand perceptions, and how to make more informed decisions based on this information.
Even with the economic downtown in 2008, the resiliency of the Top 100 brand thrived – growing in overall value by nearly 2% or $2 trillion from 2007. Consumers have developed coping strategies and purchasing “brands that contribute to their pleasure, quality, purpose, and security of their lives.” Nine of the top 10 brands, and 85 of the top 100 brands remained ranked from the previous year. Of the 17 categories, 11 grew in value. Here is a list of the top three brands and their value ($M) in each category:
Apparel: H&M Clothing (12,061), Nike (11,999), and Zara (8,609)
Beer: Bud Light (6,655), Budweiser (6,637), and Heineken (5,063)
Bottled Water: Aquafina (810), Evian (750), and Perrier (689)
Cars: Toyota (29,907), BMW (23,948), and Porsche (17,467)
Coffee: Nescafe (5,648), Nesspresso (2,451), and Folgers (1,331)
Fast Food: McDonalds (66,575), SUBWAY (10,997), and KFC (6,721)
Financial Institutions: ICBC (38,056), China Construction Base (22,811), and Bank of China (21,192)
Gaming Consoles: Nintendo DS (9,659), Nintendo Wii (8,256), and Microsoft Xbox 360 (4,581)
Insurance: State Farm (6,922), Allianz (5,669), and AXA (3,701)
Luxury: Louis Vuitton (19,395), Hermes (7,862), and Gucci (7,468)
Mobile Operators: China Mobile (61,283), Vodafone (53,727), and AT&T (20,059)
Motor Fuel: BP (5,936), Shell (4,151), and Mobile (1,525)
Personal Care: Gillette (22,919), L’Oreal (14,991), and Colgate (12,396)
Retail: Wal-Mart (41,083), Tesco (22,938), and Amazon (21,294)
Soft Drinks: Coca-Cola (53,315), Coke (Diets, Lights, and Zero) (14,310), and Pepsi (12,761)
Spirits: Smirnoff (5,201), Bacardi (3,519), and Johnnie Walker (2,571)
Technology: Google (100,039), Microsoft (76,249), and IBM (66,622)
I was most surprised by the by the categories of Beer, Cars, and Coffee. The value of beer increased by 15%, with Bud Light surpassing Budweiser in brand value and thus reflecting the consumer shift to light beers (possibly as a result of increasing health concerns). Overall, the Cars category dropped by 22% -- every carmaker on the list dropped in value with the largest brand value drops being Chevrolet at 60% and Ford at 46%. Lastly, Insurance, which has been heavily scrutinized by the media, has declined by an astounding 48%.
For a complete list of the brands, and their category rank, please visit http://thestorewpp.wtms.com/report.pdf.
