Brandz Top 100, a list of the world’s 100 most valuable brands, has recently been compiled for 2009 by Millward Brown a leading research company, which is a subsidiary of the WPP group.
Google continues to top the list, growing in value from $86 billion last year to $100 billion in 2009, which represents a growth of 16%. Google is followed by rival, Microsoft, which climbed up one position from last year with a current value of $76.2 billion – also up 8% over last year.
Yahoo! has fallen from number 62 last year to number 81 this year, and its value has also fallen, from $11.5 billion to $7.9 billion.
Other technology brands in the top 10 are IBM at number 4 with a value of $66.6 billion, Apple is at number 6 and is valued at $63.1 billion. China Mobile is placed at number 7, with a value of $61.2 billion, and Vodafone, which is a new entrant in the top 10 list, is at number 9, with a value of $53.7 billion.
Mobile operators have seen brand value rise, for the most part. O2 and AT&T have especially benefited from the launch of the iPhone, both seeing double-digit rises in brand value. The top 10 mobile operators by brand value are:
| Rank | Brand |
|---|---|
| China Mobile | 1 |
| Vadofone | 2 |
| AT&T | 3 |
| Verizon Wireless | 4 |
| NTT DoCoMo | 5 |
| Orange | 6 |
| Movistar | 7 |
| T-Mobile | 8 |
| MTS | 9 |
| Beeline | 10 |
Among the non-technology-based companies, General Electric (GE) has taken quite a beating, as the brand’s value has fallen from the number two position last year, to number 8 this year.
Ten of the companies in the top 25 list are from the technology sector. Further down the list is Amazon at number 26, AT&T at number 28, Cisco at number 30 and eBay at number 54.
Quite surprisingly, the value of some of the brands has gone up substantially this year, in spite of the effects of the worldwide recession, which only goes to show that good companies can do well even in tough times.
In the UK, brand value for some of the brands in the list has fallen. Marks & Spencers, in particular, has seen a 48% fall in brand value over the past year.
The 10 most valuable brands in the UK are as follows:
| Brand | 2009 Rank | 2008 Rank | Brand Value $M | Change in Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vadofone | 1 | 1 | 53,727 | 45% |
| Tesco | 2 | 2 | 22,938 | -1% |
| HSBC | 3 | 3 | 19,079 | 3% |
| O2 | 4 | 8,601 | 36% | |
| Standard Chartered Bank | 5 | 6 | 8,219 | 20% |
| Barclays | 6 | 5 | 6,992 | -5% |
| Marks & Spencer | 7 | 4 | 6,029 | -48% |
| BP | 8 | 7 | 5,936 | -6% |
| Asda | 9 | 9 | 5,413 | -4% |
| Smirnoff | 10 | 5,201 | 10% |
