Tech triumphs in annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands

Strong brands proved their resilience to recession in the fifth annual Millward Brown Optimor BrandZ Top100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, released at the end of last month.

According to the BrandZ Top 100 valuation, the top 100 brands’ value rose collectively by 4 percent in the past year to more than USD2 trillion. The valuation takes customers’ opinions on brands into account and aims to demonstrate them with a dollar value.

"In the past, many companies were quick to cut their marketing spend during a down economy," said Joanna Seddon, CEO of Millward Brown Optimor. "A new trend has emerged in the wake of the recession as more companies realised the importance of maintaining and even increasing budgets to support brand loyalty and engagement."

Other key findings of the ranking include:

Tech: Technology brands demonstrated their pervasiveness in our daily lives. Google leads as the Most Valuable Global Brand, worth USD114 billion. IBM was second at USD86 billion, an increase of 30 percent. In third place, Apple’s brand value grew by 32 percent and is now worth USD83 billion, while Microsoft was fourth with a value of USD76 billion.

Social media: Facebook entered the technology sector ranking for the first year with a brand value of USD5.5 billion. Use of social media was a key trend across many of the successful brands this year – for example, HSBC’s highly successful Expat Explorer online community.

BRICs: The first Indian brand, ICICI, enters the Top 100 at number 45. This is the first year that all members of the BRICs have been represented, with new entrants from China, Russia and Brazil.

Banking on brands: Taking the BrandZ Top 100 as a portfolio and comparing it to the S&P 500 over the last five years reveals that USD1,000 invested in the BrandZ Portfolio in 2006 would now be worth USD1,185 compared to USD885 invested in the S&P 500, proving that strong brands outperform the stock market.

Strong brands bounce back higher: Brands such as Samsung, the highest riser with an 80 percent growth in brand value, and Starbucks, with an increase of 17 percent, are evidence that businesses with strong brands are able to recover from adversity faster.

Eileen Campbell, Global CEO of Millward Brown said, "This ranking has elevated the importance of building brands among some of the world’s most successful companies. CEOs and CFOs around the world should be asking their brand and marketing teams how they can leverage brand to both protect and grow the business."

**The Most Valuable Global Brands 2010**
Rank	Brand	Value (USD billion)	Value Change from 2009
1	Google	114.26	+14%
2	IBM	86.38	+30%
3	Apple	83.15	+32%
4	Microsoft	76.34	0%
5	Coca Cola	67.98	+1%
6	McDonald’s	66.01	-1%
7	Marlboro	57.05	+15%
8	China Mobile	52.62	-14%
9	GE	45.05	-25%
10	Vodafone	44.40	-17%