Global branding consultancy Interbrand has published its annual Best Global Brands report for 2018, showing which international brands dominate and carry the most value.

The report ranks the world’s top 100 brands by brand value, which is based on three key components:

The financial performance of the branded products and services;

The role the brand plays in influencing customer choice;

The strength the brand has to command a premium price or secure earnings for the company.

It also draws from financial data (Thompson Reuters), consumer goods data (GlobalData) and social media data (Infegy).

According to Interbrand, companies now operate in a world where consumers have more power than ever, where they curate their own personal brands like never seen before.

Because of this, brands like Amazon, Spotify and Netflix have emerged as industry leaders, offering consumers improvements to their lives in very personal ways.

However, the top-ranked brand in the world, Apple, continues to set the standard for it means to be a world-class brand, Intebrand said, through its ability to respond to customers’ changing expectations.

Along with Apple, tech brands continued to dominate, accounting for 6 of the top 10 companies, and about a quarter of the overall top 100 (26 companies).

These are the top 10 brands in the world, according to the Interbrand report:

# Brand Value ($m) Change 1 Apple $214 480 +16% 2 Google $155 506 +10% 3 Amazon $100 764 +56% 4 Microsoft $92 715 +16% 5 Coca Cola $66 341 -5% 6 Samsung $59 890 +6% 7 Toyota $53 404 +6% 8 Mercedes-Benz $48 601 +2% 9 Facebook $45 168 -6% 10 McDonald’s $43 417 +5%

These are the top tech companies:

# Brand Value Change 1 Apple $214 480 +16% 2 Google $155 506 +10% 3 Amazon $100 764 +56% 4 Microsoft $92 715 +16% 6 Samsung $59 890 +6% 9 Facebook $45 168 -6% 11 Intel $43 393 +10% 12 IBM $42 972 -8% 15 Cisco $34 575 +8% 19 Oracle $26 133 -5% 21 SAP $22 885 +1% 34 Accenture $14 214 +14% 38 ebay $13 017 -2% 42 Philips $12 104 +5% 51 Adobe $10 748 +19% 54 HP $10 433 +9% 55 Canon $10 380 +6% 56 Siemens $10 132 +1% 59 Sony $9 316 +10% 65 Hewlett Packard Enterprise $8 157 -9% 66 Netflix $8 111 +45% 68 Huawei $7 578 +14% 73 Paypal $6 621 +22% 76 Panasonic $6 293 +5% 92 Spotify $5 176 New 99 Nintendo $4 696 New

What makes a good brand

Interbrand identified five major factors that determined which brands become global leaders.

Positive utility – creating products and experiences that have a positive impact on customers. Be it services or stories related to the brand. Subscription – 29% of the total value of the top 100 brands lies in subscription-based businesses, led by the likes of Netflix, Adobe, etc. Customer centricity – brands with the most stable growth tend to be those who score well in relevance and responsiveness. Luxury – the luxury sector was the top-performing category, registering 42% growth. Luxury feels exclusive and rewarding to customers. The Brand – leading brands are able to set new standards by increasing the role of their brand vs the product. That’s why Starbucks can charge more for its products compared to its other competitors.

“The world brands operate in is continuing to change and evolve as customer expectations shift, and technology empowers them to meet these expectations in new and different ways. No one can stand still,” Interbrand said.

“Change is imperative, and making bold moves is critical to long-term success. But, it can’t be anarchy. The whole company cannot simply innovate and change now to meet the short-term expectations of customers.

“There has to be a vision which galvanises the organisation and gives it the confidence to make the right choices to transform,” it said.

Read: These are the most trusted banking, mobile and insurance brands in South Africa