Apple Inc has maintained its place as the world’s most valuable brand over the past year, leading a group of technology-related companies that dominate the top 10, according to a study published yesterday.
The iPhone and iPad maker has boosted its brand value by 19 percent in the past year to US$183 billion, or 37 percent of its market capitalization, according to the annual BrandZ study by leading brands and market-research agency Millward Brown.
Facebook, with a market value of US$82 billion after its initial public offering last week, was the fastest climber in the top 100, seeing its brand value rise by 74 percent to US$33.2 billion to put it in 19th place.
Seven of the top 10 were -technology-related firms, although McDonald’s and Coca-Cola kept their respective No. 4 and No. 6 rankings.
Marlboro moved up a notch to seventh place despite anti--smoking campaigns in much of the world.
Nick Cooper, managing -director of Millward Brown Optimor, which produced the study, said the strength of technology brands was a measure of the central and transformative role technology plays in contemporary life.
“It’s all pervading and there’s a lot of excitement and new news,” Cooper said. “This is where it’s all happening. That tends to increase not only the demand and financial performance, but also the role of brand.”
Millward Brown, part of global advertising group WPP, takes as its starting point the financial value of the company or the part of the company that produces the brand and combines it with the brand’s ability to create loyalty.
“When cars first appeared or when air travel first appeared, they became liberating. It’s the turn of the technology sector at the moment,” Cooper said.
Business technology brands also featured prominently in the top 10, with IBM switching places with Google to rise to second place. Microsoft kept its position at No. 5.
Cooper said the so-called consumerization of information technology, in which business hardware and software makers increasingly have to come up to the standards that consumers are used to in their private lives, played a role.
“The brands that are generally demonstrating the best growth are those that tend to be occupying spaces where there is a lot more intuitive natural use, where the consumer experience is informing the B2B experience rather than the other way around,” he said.
Mobile phone brands AT&T, at No. 8 and Verizon, at No. 9, followed by China Mobile (中國移動), completed the top 10.
However, some technology brands were vulnerable to public opinion swinging against them, especially over emotive issues such as privacy, where Facebook and Google have already suffered a backlash for gathering large amounts of user data, he said.
“Consumer technology is receiving the same kind of scrutiny once reserved for banks, and brands will have to respond convincingly to increasing regulatory oversight. This may impact social brands like Facebook in the future,” he said.
Cooper added that Apple’s increasing its brand value despite the death of visionary Apple founder Steve Jobs in the past year was extraordinary.
“They are catchable, but they’ve either got to falter or someone else has got to put on a sprint,” he said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS