BEIJING, CHINA, April 23 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The second annual BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 Most Powerful Brands ranking published in cooperation with the Financial Times was announced today by leading global market research and consulting firm Millward Brown. Google has risen to the top of this year's ranking, taking the number one spot with a brand value of $66,434 million. This was followed by General Electric ($61,880 million), Microsoft ($54,951 million) and Coca-Cola ($44,134 million).
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Produced by Millward Brown Optimor, the firm's finance and ROI arm, the ranking identifies the most powerful brands in the world as measured by their dollar value. A full report will be published today, exclusively in the Financial Times.
The aggregate value of all brands in the BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 increased by 10.6% in one year, from $1.44 trillion in 2006 to $1.6 trillion in 2007.
"Success stories from this year's BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 demonstrate that winning brands leverage major market trends effectively to create business value," said Joanna Seddon, global CEO Millward Brown Optimor. "Strong brands are capable of extending into areas of opportunity to access new revenue streams and to help businesses respond to market changes."
The most notable trends emerging from this year's BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 include:
-- The rise of the East -- Today, consumers in emerging markets known as BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) have more disposable income than ever before. In order to succeed in the BRICS, Western brands must offer products or services that fill a gap in the local market. Fast food brands such as KFC ($4,485 million) and McDonald’s ($33,138 million) appeal to BRIC consumers looking for a Western dining experience. Apparel brands including Nike ($10,290 million), Levi’s ($1,041 million) and Zara ($6,469 million) fill the gap between local brands and imported luxury brands by providing “affordable fashion” to young consumers.
-- Converging technologies –- Technology companies are extending their brands to respond to the trend of combining voice, data and video technologies. Known as convergence, this trend stems from consumer preference for all-in-one devices. Apple ($24,728 million) is venturing into the mobile phone category with the launch of its iPhone while Orange ($9,922 million) is entering the music download space. Like Apple and Orange, strong brands are able to stretch so parent companies can increase revenue streams by investing in high growth ventures.
-- Delivering on Corporate Social Responsibility –- Delivering on the promise of environmental responsibility helped boost the value of major brands including BP ($5,931 million), Shell ($4,679 million) and Toyota ($33,427 million). BP was the first major oil company to address climate change with its 'beyond petroleum' brand positioning. BP executed on that brand positioning to become one of the top three global suppliers of solar energy. Shell followed suit. Toyota's success with its hybrid model Prius contributed to its positive brand image and its continued leadership in the automotive sector.
-- Fast food brands react to health conscious consumers –- Rising concerns about healthy eating disrupted the fast food industry that had enjoyed continuous growth since the 1980s. Most fast food chains, including McDonald's ($33,138 million), repositioned themselves with the introduction of healthier food alternatives. Burger King ($1,401 million) took the opposite stance through marketing campaigns that called attention to the chain's original offering: the high-calorie and masculine hamburger. Burger King's brand value increased by 63% to prove that strong brands succeed whether they follow or defy market trends.
Commenting on this year's BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 ranking, Eileen Campbell, global CEO of Millward Brown said: "It is a huge achievement to become one of the world's most powerful brands and Millward Brown congratulates all of the companies featured in this year's BRANDZ(TM) Top 100. These top performers demonstrate the real financial value that successful business and brand management can deliver. There are tons of actionable insights that can be derived from these rankings. They prove that a blend of good business leadership, responsible financial management and powerful marketing are an unbeatable combination that can be leveraged to create and grow corporate wealth."
More Chinese brands, mostly bank brands, made it to the BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 Most Powerful Brands list of this year. Zhang Yixin, Director of Millward Brown Optimor China, said: “In accordance with the WTO commitment, the financial service market in China has been opening up to foreign players. Since December 11th, 2006, foreign banks are permitted to provide RenMinBi retail services in China, but they face strong competition from local banks, which have not only large number of branches, but also strong relationship with local customers as a result of long time brand presence in the market.” Zhang added: “Many large Chinese corporations in other sectors, such as PetroChina, are also putting huge efforts into brand management in order to respond to the increasing competition and market changes. We believe that more and more Chinese brands will grow to be strong enough to compete with the world-class brands in their respective industries.”
The BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 is the only brand ranking to combine financials with solid measures of consumer sentiment derived from WPP's BRANDZ(TM) database, the world's largest repository of brand equity data. The BRANDZ(TM) study has interviewed more than one million consumers globally on an annual basis and covers 39,000 brands worldwide. The BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 is the first study to cover both business and consumer brands and to include predictive metrics of future brand performance. Market performance metrics and financial data were obtained from Datamonitor and Bloomberg respectively.
The complete BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 report with category and regional breakdowns as well as additional analysis is available online at http://www.millwardbrown.com/mboptimor , http://www.brandz.com and at http://www.ft.com .
About the BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 ranking
Developed for WPP’s operating companies by Millward Brown Optimor, the BRANDZ(TM) ranking of the world’s Top 100 most powerful brands is based on data from the BRANDZ(TM) database. The BRANDZ(TM) study, conducted annually by Millward Brown, measures the brand equity of almost 40,000 global “consumer facing” brands, and interviews over 1 million consumers globally. Consumer perception of a brand is a key input in determining brand value because brands are a combination of business performance, product delivery, clarity of positioning, and leadership. In addition to utilizing BRANDZ(TM) data, the Top 100 ranking assesses Brand Value (using market and consumer research, in combination with financial data from Bloomberg and Datamonitor, to calculate and break-down intangible earnings), Brand Contribution (the brand’s effectiveness in driving business earnings), and Brand Momentum (an index of expected short-term brand growth). The ranking takes into account regional variations since even for truly global brands measures of brand contribution might differ substantially across countries.
About Millward Brown
Millward Brown ( http://www.millwardbrown.com ) is one of the world's leading research agencies and is expert in effective advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research. Through the use of an integrated suite of validated research solutions -- both qualitative and quantitative -- Millward Brown helps clients build strong brands and services. Millward Brown has more than 70 offices in 44 countries. Additional practices include Millward Brown's Global Media Practice (media effectiveness unit), Millward Brown Optimor (focused on helping clients maximize the returns on their brand and marketing investments), Millward Brown Precis (PR measurement practice), Dynamic Logic (the world leader in digital marketing effectiveness), and KMR (provider of global Target Group Index [TGI] the world's leading media and market profiling tool). Millward Brown is part of Kantar, WPP's insight, information and consultancy group.
About the Financial Times
The Financial Times Group, one of the world’s leading business information companies, aims to provide a broad range of business information and services to the growing audience of internationally minded business people. The FT Group includes The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business newspapers, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, the newspaper is printed in 23 cities across the globe, has a daily circulation of 440,000 and a readership of more than 1.4 million people worldwide. The FT Group also includes FT.com, one of the world's leading business information websites, and the internet partner of the FT newspaper. The FT Group’s pan-European network of national business newspapers and online services includes France’s leading business newspaper and website, Les Echos and lesechos.fr. In February 2000, the FT launched a new German language newspaper, FT Deutschland, with a fully integrated online business news and data service. Through FT Interactive Data, the FT Group is one of the world’s leading sources of securities pricing and specialist financial information to global institutional, professional and individual investors. The FT Group also includes Mergermarket Group, whose products and services provide the global advisory and corporate communities with intelligence and analysis. With regional head offices in London, New York and Hong Kong and 200 journalists in 46 locations worldwide, reliable and validated proprietary intelligence and historical data is provided via the mergermarket, dealReporter, Debtwire and wealthmonitor on-line platforms.
BRANDZ(TM) Top 100 Most Powerful Brands
# Brand Value ($m) % change in Brand Value
1 Google 66,434 77%
2 GE (General Electric) 61,880 11%
3 Microsoft 54,951 -11%
4 Coca-Cola (**) 44,134 7%
5 China Mobile 41,214 5%
6 Marlboro 39,166 2%
7 Wal-Mart 36,880 -2%
8 Citi 33,706 9%
9 IBM 33,572 -7%
10 Toyota 33,427 11%
11 McDonald’s 33,138 14%
12 Nokia 31,670 19%
13 Bank of America 28,767 2%
14 BMW 25,751 8%
15 HP 24,987 27%
16 Apple 24,728 55%
17 UPS 24,580 13%
18 Wells Fargo 24,284 N.A.
19 American Express 23,113 23%
20 Louis Vuitton 22,686 16%
21 Disney 22,572 2%
22 Vodafone 21,107 -12%
23 NTT DoCoMo 19,450 0%
24 Cisco 18,812 -10%
25 Intel 18,707 -26%
26 Home Depot 18,335 -33%
27 SAP 18,103 N.A.
28 Gillette 17,954 1%
29 Mercedes 17,813 0%
30 Oracle 17,809 28%
31 HSBC 17,457 26%
32 Tesco 16,649 7%
33 ICBC 16,460 N.A.
34 Verizon Wireless 16,261 9%
35 Starbucks 16,057 45%
36 Honda 15,465 7%
37 Dell 13,903 -24%
38 Bank of China 13,689 N.A.
39 Royal Bank of Canada 13,624 N.A.
40 Porsche 13,372 11%
41 Deutsche Bank 13,210 1%
42 Yahoo! 13,201 -6%
43 eBay 12,927 -2%
44 Samsung 12,742 6%
45 Ford 12,627 -9%
46 L’Oreal 12,303 15%
47 Banco Santander 12,094 -4%
48 Pepsi (**) 11,756 2%
49 Carrefour 11,710 8%
50 Merrill Lynch 11,655 16%
51 UBS 11,591 21%
52 Target 11,560 88%
53 ING 11,539 N.A.
54 Canon 11,413 15%
55 Sony 11,389 22%
56 Morgan Stanley 11,204 6%
57 Chevrolet 11,202 -10%
58 Nissan 11,189 3%
59 Chase 11,182 15%
60 Motorola 10,787 19%
61 China Construction Bank 10,757 N.A.
62 Accenture 10,534 8%
63 Nike 10,290 -5%
64 Harley-Davidson 10,269 3%
65 Wachovia 10,035 -2%
66 Budweiser (**) 9,977 -15%
67 Orange 9,922 5%
68 Marks & Spencer 9,509 192%
69 FedEx 9,310 13%
70 Cingular Wireless 9,260 39%
71 Siemens 9,111 35%
72 State Farm 8,738 11%
73 H&M 8,711 9%
74 JP Morgan 8,490 20%
75 TIM 8,440 N.A.
76 Goldman Sachs 8,239 -7%
77 T-Mobile 8,047 -32%
78 Colgate 7,711 32%
79 Chanel 7,499 15%
80 Subway 7,433 N.A.
81 IKEA 7,373 2%
82 Royal Bank Of Scotland 7,200 N.A.
83 VW (Volkswagen) 7,033 4%
84 Cartier 7,021 27%
85 Hermes 6,939 44%
86 Best Buy 6,674 113%
87 Barclays 6,612 30%
88 Avon 6,558 -1%
89 Gucci 6,524 49%
90 Zara 6,469 27%
91 WaMu 6,126 31%
92 Amazon 5,964 0%
93 BP 5,931 8%
94 AIG 5,880 4%
95 ABN AMRO 5,617 72%
96 Auchan 5,570 4%
97 Asda 5,540 19%
98 Lexus 5,421 7%
99 Esprit 5,411 29%
100 Rolex 5,387 9%
*Source: Millward Brown Optimor (including data from BRANDZ(TM), Datamonitor, and Bloomberg)
** The brand value of Coca-Cola includes Diet Coke, that of Pepsi Cola includes Diet Pepsi and that of Budweiser includes Bud Light
