Samsung Group’s brand value improved over the last 12 months and the South Korean conglomerate currently owns the sixth most valuable brand in the world, according to the new Brand Finance Global 500 Report published on Wednesday. The London-based consulting agency claims that Samsung Group’s global brand is now worth approximately $66.2 billion. The new figure represents a 13% increase in comparison to 2016 when the Seoul-based tech giant owned the seventh most valuable brand on the planet worth around $58.6 billion. Despite the fact that Samsung Group now ranks better than it did last year, its brand was already by far the most valuable conglomerate brand in the world.
While Samsung moved up on Brand Finance’s latest list, Verizon dropped down by two spots and is now the seventh most valuable brand in the world despite experiencing a 4% increase in brand value in comparison to 2016. Unfortunately for Verizon, most other companies on this list recorded a larger growth during the same period. The only firm among the top ten most valuable brands that recorded a loss in brand value in the last 12 months was Apple. The Cupertino-based tech giant took a 27% hit during the previous period and yielded the top spot to Google whose brand is now valued at $109.5 billion, 24 percent more than in 2016.
Brand Finance’s latest report also includes a list of the world’s most powerful brands as the British evaluation firm differentiates brand value from brand power using its proprietary Brand Strength Index (BSI). According to this measure, LEGO is the most powerful brand on the planet with a BSI score of 92.7, followed by Google at 92.1. All of the top ten most powerful brands in the world were awarded Finance Brand’s AAA+ rating, while Samsung Group received the AAA- rating this year, the same one it was awarded the year before. While some industry watchers previously speculated that Samsung Group’s brand may take a significant hit following the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco of Samsung Electronics, the South Korean conglomerate is still doing rather well by virtually all standards. It remains to be seen whether the company can continue strengthening its brand over the course of this year but as things stand right now, Samsung’s investors have a lot of reasons to be happy.
