How can one brand become one of the most important and valuable brands in the whole world? There are many factors to this and mainly, a strong brand’s purpose is to attract customers and build loyalty with them, while also motivating their staff to perform adequately. Yet for a commercial brand, the main answer must always be to make money.

This year, it has been exhibited to the world by brand management firm, Interband, that the latest list of the world’s most valuable brands for the year, and to no surprise, the brands that have landed at the top of the list would be Apple on the first spot, Google on the second, Microsoft, and IBM on the next spots.

These brands have been on top of the charts for fifteen years consecutively, where Apple and Google have remained in the top two spots; the third year in a row. The other brands, mainly technology firms listed on the chart includes Microsoft on the fourth spot, IBM on the fifth, Samsung for the seventh spot, Amazon on the tenth, on the fifteenth and sixteenth spot for Cisco and Oracle, HP taking the eighteenth spot, Facebook on twenty-three, and so on.

On the chart, out of a hundred companies that were listed had a total of almost thirty companies that are technology-based and is comprised of more than a third of its total value; because of this, no other industry has shown such a strong impact in the rankings. For this year’s biggest gain, it would have to be Facebook since they rose from the twenty-ninth spot up to the twenty-third spot on the chart; this is all because of an increase in its brand’s value by 54 percent. For PayPal and Lenovo, they have made their first appearance on the chart just this year.

For the past years, the consultancy firm namely Interbrand has been looking and studying hundreds of different brands to conclude which among all these brands are the most valuable and important. The firm’s methodology, despite it being rather broad, focuses mainly on three factors. These factors are the following:

The specific brand’s services or products’ financial performance

How it stands and what its position is in the market – competition-wise

The brand’s influence on a customer’s purchasing power and decision

Here is the list of the most valuable brands in the world for 2015, ranking from the first spot until the tenth position:

APPLE INC.

A multi-national technology company that is headquartered in California, USA; the company designs, improves, develops, as well as sells computer software, consumer electronics, and also online services.

Brand Value (2015 $M): $ 246,992

GOOGLE

An American multi-national company that specializes mainly on internet related products and services; these products and services include search, cloud computing, online advertising technologies, as well as software.

Brand Value (2015 $M): $ 173.652

MICROSOFT

Microsoft Corporation is headquartered in Washington, USA and generally develops, licenses, manufactures, sells and supports computer software and more.

Brand Value (2015 $M): $ 115,500

IBM

IBM, also known as International Business Machines Corporation, is a multi-national consulting and technology corporation in areas that range from mainframe computers and all the way to nanotechnologies.

Brand Value (2015 $M): $ 93,987

VISA INC.

Another American company that facilitates and processes electronic fund transfers throughout the whole world.

Brand Value (2015 $M): $91,962