Every year, global research agency Millward Brown is commissioned by WPP to produce rankings of the world’s top 100 brands. Called the BrandZ Top 100, it uses publicly available financial records, Kantar Worldpanel Data and consumer research from its BrandZ database to compile and analyse the research. Now in its seventh year, Millward Brown report that almost half the Top 100 brands lost value over the past year.
“We have been monitoring the value of the great brands around the globe for a full seven years now. But this year, we saw a first—the value of the world’s best brands barely inched up! In this edition of the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report, you’ll see that the aggregate value of the world’s most powerful brands grew a mere 0.4%. This compares to 17% growth last year and 4% growth even on the heels of 2009’s Great Recession,” said global CEO of Millward Brown, Eileen Campbell.
Interestingly, South African company MTN made the list, the first African company to do so. It came in at number 88.
“So what gives?” Campbell asked. “Is the era of brand power coming to an end? Hardly. There were some spectacular growth stories in 2011. By the time this report is off the presses, our fastest growing brand, Facebook will have completed its IPO and likely our valuation will need to be adjusted upward. We expect a stratospheric valuation as individuals and institutions clamour to own a little piece of the social media titan.
“Luxury goods with the likes of Hermès and Rolex saw spectacular double digit growth in spite of anaemic market conditions. And our rankings celebrate a number of ‘comeback kids’, including Starbucks and Home Depot, who surged forward after regaining their footing. Exciting new brands emerged on the scene, including our first African brand, the telecom giant MTN.
“Emerging markets—a term that feels increasingly inaccurate and clichéd—remained a cause for enthusiasm, but also made us pause and think about where growth will come from when these red-hot markets cool,” she said.
One in five of the 2012 BrandZ™ Top 100 brands came from a fast growing economy. But the total value of those brands slipped slightly for the first time to $330.8-billion because of the business slowdown in Brazil and China. Brand value fluctuations in the 2012 BrandZ™ ranking were spread evenly across the 13 categories covered. Six categories rose in value and six declined. The financial category remained even with last year.
Other factors impacting brand value included the BRIC slowdown, Europe’s debt crisis, political uncertainty in the US and the erosion of trust culminating in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
“In spite of this, our sentiment is that brands become even more important in periods of low growth. Competition will inevitably heat up as companies seek share growth in lieu of overall market growth,” said Campell. “The great thing about powerful brands is the ability to play defence and offence. In tough times, a powerful brand protects us from competitive incursions and in good times, it provides a meaningful platform on which to grow.”
So what are the Top 100 brands? Well, check them out here (https://www.millwardbrown.com/Libraries/Optimor_BrandZ_Files/2012_BrandZ_Top100_Chart.sflb.ashx).
And below are the Top 10.
