What’s in a name?
Plenty, according to Brand Finance, which bills itself as a global brand valuation and strategy consultancy. Using a collection of diverse metrics, including a brand’s strength, its influence on purchasing decisions, its current revenues, and forecasted sales, the company arrives at an annual tally of the world’s 500 most valuable brands.
Topping the Global 500 again for 2019 — no drumroll needed — is Amazon, which enjoyed a 24 percent spike last year to $187.9 billion in brand value. As the report’s authors noted, “Notoriously strong for service, last year Amazon recorded its most successful Prime Day to date, with consumers purchasing more than 100 million products. This was shortly followed by the brand crossing the $1 trillion threshold on Wall Street for the first time in its history. And due to an ever-diversifying portfolio, it seems no industry is safe from the threat and power of Amazon.”
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Following Amazon on the rankings are fellow tech titans Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, AT&T and Facebook (in that order), with Huawei coming in 12th place on the Global 500, China’s WeChat all-in-one social app placing 20th, and Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent landing the 21st spot. (Huawei, despite being effectively banned from the U.S. market, saw its brand value rocket 64 percent last year, to $62.3 billion, Brand Finance reports.)
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Tech, in fact, proved to be the most dominant sector on the Global 500, accounting for nearly a quarter of all brand value. Retail, by comparison, ranked sixth, with 6 percent of total brand value.
Speaking of merchants, Walmart is a distant second to Amazon, placing 11th on the overall Global 500 rankings, followed by The Home Depot (No. 22); Lowe’s (No. 63); IKEA (No. 74); CVS (76); and Costco (No. 98).
Elsewhere, Chinese e-commerce combatant Alibaba (No. 116) edged out JD.com (No. 151), while No. 1 U.S. tech retailer Best Buy, which pulled up stakes in Europe and China and consolidated its Canadian business under chairman/CEO Hubert Joly, failed to make the cut.
The full report is available online.
