Dusseldorf Despite inflation, the energy crisis and the pandemic, the world’s 100 most important brands have increased their value significantly. According to calculations by the international brand consultancy Interbrand, the 100 most valuable brands together have a value of more than three trillion US dollars for the first time – an increase of 16 percent over the previous year. The values have never risen so sharply since the start of the annual survey in 2000.
The ranking presented on Thursday was available to the Handelsblatt in advance. “Especially in times of crisis, strong brands can offer people support and orientation,” says Simon Thun, CEO for Central and Eastern Europe at Interbrand. The most valuable brands are increasingly positioning themselves beyond their original product and creating a cross-industry and cross-sector result, according to the expert.
The best example of this is Apple: the tech group manufactures hardware such as iPhones and MacBooks, and its music streaming Apple Music, its range of films and series, but also its storage services are making inroads into many areas of customer life. Apple remains number one in the world for the tenth consecutive year, according to Interbrand, with a brand value of $482 billion.
Technology brands are already at the top of the rankings: Together with Apple, five tech brands make up the top spots in Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Samsung. Tech companies have an easier time building a brand because they have faster product cycles than automakers, for example, or can come up with bigger surprises than food manufacturers, for example.
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Recently, weak quarterly figures from Amazon, Facebook parent Meta or Google parent Alphabet triggered a price slide. Brand expert Thun still counts tech values among the brands with the greatest growth in the long term. “The market capitalization of US tech companies was historically high and is now being assessed more realistically on the stock exchange.”
The top three account for a third of the brand value of the top 100
The brand value of the ten largest brands is greater than the value of the 90 that are ranked afterwards. And the gap has widened. The top three even represent a third of the brand value of the top 100. Thun speaks of a “super league of brands”.
The top ten also includes Toyota, Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Disney and, for the first time, Nike. The US sporting goods manufacturer has almost doubled its brand value since 2016. “The top brands manage to build close relationships with their customers and also transfer that trust to new products,” explains Thun.
For the “Best Global Brands”, Interbrand uses key financial figures such as expected earnings. Second, the role of the brand is included: For example, the experts measure the extent to which it played a greater role in the consumer’s purchase decision than price or product characteristics.
Thirdly, the strength of the brand compared to direct competitors is taken into account. The brand consultants transfer this into an index and calculate the monetary value of a brand.
For industry experts, the absolute number is less important than the placement and the change from the previous year. Only the comparison reveals the value of an individual brand.
Microsoft and Tesla are the climbers in the brand ranking
According to Interbrand, the value of the Microsoft brand has recently grown the most – by a third to 278 billion euros. As a result of the changes in the pandemic, the tech group has also succeeded in penetrating other areas of consumer life with its video conferencing service, for example, according to brand insider Thun. Microsoft has thus overtaken Amazon in the ranking.
The electric pioneer Tesla has increased its value by more than a third and is now in twelfth place – directly ahead of BMW, but four places behind Mercedes-Benz. With a brand value of 56 billion euros, the Stuttgart company is the most valuable German representative in the ranking.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s growth has slowed. In the previous year, the brand value had increased by 184 percent. Recently, allegations of discrimination by employees at Tesla have increased, and the group has been fined for this. “A brand must also position itself in 2022 by assuming more comprehensive responsibility within society,” says Thun. The Tesla brand is also strongly associated with CEO Elon Musk’s personality brand.
With an increase of 30 percent, the toy manufacturer Lego is one of the brands with the strongest growth. The brand experts at Interbrand explain this by saying that the Danes have opened up new fields around the core product of toys, such as amusement parks, which increase brand value.
The winners also include the credit card provider Mastercard and the insurer Allianz. Especially in times of crisis, when wealth can be reduced, people in areas such as finance or insurance turn to strong brands that they trust, says brand expert Thun.
The luxury sector is the industry with the fastest growing brand equity, up 22 percent. Status symbols such as Dior, Chanel, Hermès, Gucci or Louis Vuitton continue to play a major role for their clientele. In addition, their buyers are often financially strong, the crisis restricts their spending behavior less.
Consumer Goods and Canon are the losers of the ranking
The situation is different for everyday goods. The brand values of the razor blade manufacturer Gilette, the diaper company Pampers, the food manufacturer Danone and the beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola and Pepsi remained almost unchanged.
Interbrand boss Thun says: “Fast-moving consumer goods brands are having a particularly difficult time right now.” Because the general population’s desire to consume is suffering from the high inflation, many consumers no longer use branded products, but rather the cheaper private labels of the trade. L’Oréal boss Nicolas Hieronimus recently reported that customers in Great Britain, which is particularly plagued by inflation, would increasingly switch to other products.
Canon is again one of the losers in the Interbrand brand ranking. The camera manufacturer has to accept a minus of 15 percent, the brand loss was already similar in the two previous years. The Japanese are suffering from the smartphone boom, many cell phones are hardly inferior to expensive cameras in terms of photo quality.
This year only seven of the 100 brands lost value, last year it was 15, and in the first year of the pandemic even more than half of the top hundred. Brand connoisseur Thun says: “After years of crisis, companies and consumers have adjusted to it.”
More: These brands scored particularly well in 2022