According to a report published today by BrandFinance, Google is now rated the most valuable brand in the world at over $44bn. Walmart, last year’s top dog, has slipped to third behind Microsoft and Apple has jumped 12 places from 20th ranking last year to 8th this year with a valuation of $29.5bn.
Among the biggest losers are BP, which has fallen 53 places as a result of the on-going PR disasters, and Nokia, which suffered the largest fall in brand value of $9.9bn. And poor old Coca Cola, at $25.8bn, drops out of the top ten for the first time.
The top ten brand leader board is dominated by US companies, with only one foreign contender, Vodafone. It’s good to see a British company ranked so high: Vodafone has climbed from 7th last year to 5th with a valuation of $30.6bn.
I can’t help thinking that the dominance of Vodafone in the cellular market is a direct result of the lack of international competition from US carriers. This was neatly explained by Horace Dediu of Asymco and covered in my item on Wednesday. If the US market was not so fragmented, with incompatibilities across the board, it is likely that a giant would have emerged to challenge the likes of Vodafone. At the moment, though, the Europeans (and, it seems, the British) have the world market cornered.
Source: BrandFinance via Engadget.