The brand and logo of Apple Inc has been named the most valuable in the world — worth nearly US$119 billion, or more than the entire GDP of Morocco, Ecuador or Oman.
The Silicon Valley firm, the world’s biggest company — with a stock market valuation of US$591 billion — saw its brand value increase by 21 percent over the past 12 months, according to the closely followed Interbrand Best Global Brands annual report.
Google Inc’s brand value rose by 15 percent to US$107 million to take second place, followed by Coca-Cola Co up 3 percent to US$81.5 billion, IBM Corp (US$72.2 billion) and Microsoft Corp (US$45.5 billion).
Facebook Inc is the biggest riser in the chart, increasing its brand value by 86 percent to US$14.3 billion and taking 29th place in the table ahead of global corporate names such as Volkswagen AG, Kellogg’s Co and Ford Motor Co.
Chief executive of Interbrand, part of global advertising group Omnicom, Jez Frampton said: “Benefiting immensely from the rise of digital and, later, mobile technology, savvy brands like Apple grew stronger... New category-killers like Google, Amazon and Facebook [have] reset customer expectations and raised the bar for brand experiences.”
Interbrand’s chief marketing officer Graham Hayles said it was “not out of kilter” that Apple’s brand could account for a fifth of the company’s entire market value.
“There is a very strong correlation between branding and profitability,” he said.
Hayles said Interbrand, which has been carrying out the annual study since 2000, calculates brand value by examining financial performance, consumers’ “brand alliance” and “brand strength analysis.”
While many technology companies rose up the chart, there were big fallers too. Nokia dropped 41 places to 98th at US$4.1 billion, just ahead of Nintendo Co in 100th place (down 33).
“They’re both only just in the chart now,” Hayles said. “It shows the importance of getting innovation right. If you don’t keep pace it is very penalizing.”
A Chinese company made it into the top 100 for the first time this year, with mobile phone and broadband firm Huawei Technologies Co (華為) entering the rankings in 94th place with a brand value of US$4.3 billion.
Huawei, which is mostly owned by the Chinese state, has been partly banned by the US and Australian governments due to fears that its equipment could be used for cyberespionage.
Most of the brands in the top 100 are US-owned, the highest-placed non-US brands are South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co (6th), Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp (8th) and Germany’s Mercedes-Benz (10th).
The highest-placed British brands are HSBC (33rd), Shell PLC (65th) and Burberry PLC (73rd).
Other fashion brands in the top 100 include Hugo Boss AG, Prada SpA and Ralph Lauren.
Designer label Louis Vuitton is the top-ranked fashion name, in 19th position with a value of US$23 billion, just ahead of clothing chain Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), with a brand value of US$21 billion and ranked 21st.
Sports brand Nike Inc, ranked 22nd with a brand valued at nearly US$20 billion, is rated way ahead of rival Adidas AG, at 59th in the top 100 with a value of US$7 billion.
Frampton said consumers’ ability to interact and criticize brands on Twitter and other social media means companies must react faster to retain and improve their brands’ reputations.
“The customer, e-mpowered by social media in the ‘age of experience,’ now has more control than ever. In this world of two-way conversations, advocacy, influence, and engagement are the new rules for brand building,” he said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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