The Apple brand is worth nearly $215 billion, according to Interbrand
Apple is the first brand to be worth over 200 billion dollars according to Interbrand. However, Amazon is enjoying the biggest increase in value: The online retail platform is the new number three behind Google.
In the 19th year of the Best Global Brands, Interbrand has once again named Apple the most valuable brand in the world. With a brand value of 214.48 billion US dollars, Apple is the first brand in the history of the Best Global Brands to break the two hundred billion US dollar barrier. The new number three is Amazon. The online retailer increased its brand value by 56 percent. This is the biggest growth of any Best Global Brand this year and the biggest growth of a single brand since Facebook in 2014. The spectacular growth of this brand is based on its success in redefining the laws of commerce. Amazon is a leader in user and consumer experience, innovation and responsiveness.
"Amazon's success exemplifies the theme of this year's Best Global Brands: Activating Brave," says Simon Thun, Chief Executive Officer of Interbrand Central & Eastern Europe. "Sustainable success requires the courage to not only go with the general trend, but to move forward in new directions. In our ranking, the brands that grow at an above-average rate are those that courageously try out new things and then consistently implement and scale them. The biggest risk for brands today is increasingly not having the courage to change."
Charles Trevail, Global Chief Executive Officer of Interbrand, agrees: "A decade after the global financial crisis, the fastest growing brands are those that instinctively understand their customers and boldly explore new avenues that resonate with consumers because they surprise them."
Winners, losers and new additions
In addition to Amazon as the Top Growing Brand, Netflix, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Salesforce.com also belong to the group of the Top 5 winners this year. Netflix is the second fastest-growing brand, climbing 12 places to 66th place with an increase of 45% (brand value: 8.11 billion US dollars). Gucci took third place in the group of rising stars. The luxury brand recorded an increase in value of 30 percent, moving up 12 places to 39th place (brand value: 12.94 billion US dollars). Louis Vuitton is the second luxury brand in the club of this year's winners, increasing in value by 23 percent. 2017 newcomer Salesforce.com also gains 23% and ranks 75th with a brand value of 6.43 billion US dollars.
The losers in 2018 include GE (-26%), H&M (-18%), Harley-Davidson (-9%), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (-9%) and IBM (-8%). After five years as the top growing brand, Facebook suffered a decline of six percent for the first time in 2018.
Two brands make their debut in 2018: Spotify enters at number 92 with a brand value of 5.18 billion US dollars. And Subaru also makes it into the top 100 (100th place) with a brand value of 4.21 billion US dollars.
Chanel, last in the ranking in 2009, re-enters at 23rd place with a brand value of 20.01 billion US dollars. Hennessy (98th place), which was last in the ranking in 2009, and Nintendo (99th place), which was last in the Best Global Brands in 2014, can also celebrate their re-entry.
Luxury and retail are the fastest growing sectors in percentage terms
More than half of the Best Global Brands come from four sectors: Automotive (16 brands), Technology (13 brands), Financial Services (12 brands),Luxury (9 brands) and FMCG (9 brands).
At 42%, the luxury sector is replacing retail as the fastest growing sector in percentage terms this year. Nevertheless, the retail sector remains strong and is growing by an impressive 36%. The electronics sector (20%), the sporting goods sector (13%) and the financial services sector (10%) are also recording strong growth.
Overall, the value of all 100 listed brands grew by 7.7% year-on-year to a new record of 2.02 trillion US dollars.
Interbrand's brand valuation approach
Interbrand's brand valuation is based on three aspects: the financial performance of the brand's products or services; the role of the brand in the purchasing decision process; the strength of the brand in terms of securing the company's future earnings. This methodology is the first to be successfully certified according to ISO 10668:2010 - an international standard that defines the basic requirements for procedures and methods for determining the monetary value of a brand. This year, Interbrand once again worked with Infegy as a partner for the social media analyses as part of the determination of the Best Global Brands. The complete ranking, detailed analyses, trends as well as many background articles and interviews with the brand managers of the Best Global Brands can be found at Bestglobalbrands.com
