Tech firm pips Google and Coca-Cola, with logo and corporate image deemed to be worth more than some national economies





The brand and logo of Apple has been named the most valuable in the world – worth nearly $119bn (£80bn), or more than the entire gross domestic product of Morocco, Ecuador or Oman.

The Silicon Valley firm, already the world’s biggest company – with a stock market valuation of $591bn – saw its brand value increase by a 21% over the past 12 months, according to the closely followed Interbrand Best Global Brands annual report.

Apple, which is recognised the world over by its simple “Apple with a bite missing” emblem, led a surge of technology companies in this year’s report which has pushed more traditionally valuable brands – such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Gillette – down the table.

Google’s brand value rose by 15% to $107bn to take second place, followed by Coca-Cola up 3% to $81.5bn, IBM ($72.2bn) and Microsoft ($45.5bn).

Facebook is the biggest riser in the chart, increasing its brand value by 86% to $14.3bn and taking 29th place in the table ahead of longstanding global corporate names such as Volkswagen, Kellogg’s and Ford.

Jez Frampton, chief executive of Interbrand, which is part of global advertising group Omnicom, 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 significantly raised the bar for brand experiences.”

Apple, which former chief executive Steve Jobs founded in his Los Altos garage 38 years ago, first appeared in the top 10 of the Interbrand annual study only three years ago.

Its logo, created by advertising executive Rob Janoff in 1977, was designed with a bite taken out of it to avoid confusion with a cherry. “One of the deep mysteries to me is our logo, the symbol of lust and knowledge, bitten into, all crossed with the colours of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldn’t dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy,” Janoff said.

Graham Hayles, Interbrand’s chief marketing officer, said it was “not out of kilter” that Apple’s brand could account for a fifth of the company’s entire market value. “Apple makes a lot of money, because it has a very strong brand,” he said. “There is a very strong correlation between branding and profitability.”

Hayles said Interbrand, which has been carrying out the annual study since 2000, calculates brand value by examining companies financial performance, consumers’ “brand alliance” and “brand strength analysis”.

While many technology companies rose up the chart, there were big fallers too. Finnish mobile phone company Nokia dropped 41 places to 98th at $4.1bn, just ahead of Nintendo 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 penalising.”

A Chinese company made it into the top 100 for the first time this year, with mobile phone and broadband firm Huawei entering the rankings in 94th place with a brand value of $4.3bn. Huawei has been partly banned by the US and Australian governments due to fears that its equipment could be used by the Chinese for cyber-espionage.

Most of the brands in the top 100 are US-owned, the highest-placed non-US brands are South Korea’s Samsung (6th), Japan’s Toyota (8th) and Germany’s Mercedes-Benz (10th). The highest placed British brands are HSBC (33rd), Shell (65th) and Burberry (73rd).

Other fashion brands in the top 100 include Boss, Prada and Ralph Lauren. Designer label Louis Vuitton is the top ranked fashion name, in 19th position with a value of $23bn, just ahead of high street clothing chain H&M, with a brand value of $21bn and ranked 21.

Sports brand Nike, ranked 22 with a brand valued at nearly $20bn, is rated way ahead of rival Adidas, at 59 in the top 100 with a value of $7bn.

Frampton said consumers ability to interact and criticise brands on Twitter and other social media means companies must react faster to retain and improve their brands’ reputations.

“The customer, empowered by social media in the ‘age of experience’, now has more control than ever,” he said. “In this world of two-way conversations, advocacy, influence, and engagement are the new rules for brand building.”

“[Customers] expect seamless interactions, responsiveness, 24/7 accessibility, customisation options, and high levels of personalisation,” he said. “In a sense, they increasingly expect brands to know them.”

• This article was amended on 9 October 2014 to remove a statement that Huawei is mostly owned by the Chinese state. Huawei says it is a private company wholly owned by 84,000 of its employees. The article was also amended to correct Google’s brand value from $107m to $107bn.

Top 10 brands

Apple - $118bn Google - $107bn Coca-Cola - $81bn IBM - $72bn Microsoft - $61bn GE - $45bn Samsung - $45bn Toyota - $42bn McDonald’s - $42bn Mercedes-Benz - $34bn



