Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, the definitive listing of the world’s most valuable company brands, has released their latest listing – the top ten have stayed almost the same. Apple continues to cling to first place, while Google holds on to number two – this is the first time since Interbrand started the valuation rankings that TWO companies surpassed the $100 billion mark in the same year! Google’s $107 billion was not quite enough to beat out Apple’s $118.9 billion ranking. Coca-Cola came in third at $81 billion, IBM was fourth at $72 billion, Microsoft rounded the top five at $61.1 billion – Samsung came in seventh at $45 billion. The top two companies increased in value from last year – Apple up 21-percent and Google up 15-percent…even Samsung with all of its doom and gloom talk, rose 15-percent from last year.
Some other names of interest to us that showed up in the top 100 – Number 5 Microsoft, that came in with $61.1 billion was up only 3-percent – Amazon comes in at number 15 with a 25-percent increase from 2013 and considered a 2014 top riser – Number 29 was Facebook, up a whopping 86-percent from the year before and was one of Interbrand’s top risers – Sony came in at number 52 and was down 3-percent from 2013 – China’s Huawei came in at number 94 and was new in the top 100 – and finally, Nokia hung on at number 98, but was down 44-percent and probably has seen its last time in the top 100.
Interbrand explains that in order for companies to make the worldwide list they must have at least 30-percent of their revenue come from outside the brand’s home region and must have a significant influence in Asia, Europe and North America, as well as covering the emerging nations. The brand must have public recognition and awareness across the major economies of the world and the companies financial data must be publicly available. Interbrand claims there are “three key components in all of our valuations: an analysis of the financial performance of the branded products or services, of the role the brand plays in purchase decisions, and of the brand’s competitive strength.”
Please hook up with us on our Google+ Page and let’s discuss what Google’s chances are of surpassing Apple as the number one most valued company and what caused Apple’s valuation to go up 21-percent since 2013…as always, we would love to hear from you.