2014 Global Top 100 Brands

12 percent Global Top 100 value rise demonstrates brand power

Strong brands surge with new growth

We’ve turned the corner. Brands achieved real and robust growth and brand value rose 12 percent, with every category appreciating in brand value, in the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2014.

A 40 percent rise in brand value drove Google to the number one position in the ranking. The brand has appreciated 324 percent in brand value since the inception of the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands in 2006. Apple, the second most valuable brand, has grown 826 percent in value since 2006.

These brand value increases demonstrate the centrality of technology in our society and also the power of strong brands with a clear proposition and mission to help improve the lives of their customers and, in the process, increase share of life.

Brands with these qualities, regardless of product category or region of origin, were best positioned to add value as North America, the UK and Continental Europe returned to strong economic health, even as the growth rate in the BRICs slowed.

Despite slower growth, China retained a major presence in the BrandZ™ Global Top 100 with 11 brands, only one brand less than a year ago. The performance indicates the potential impact of Chinese brands outside of China.

The fastest-growing brand in the ranking, Tencent, the Chinese social network and Internet portal, almost doubled in value, with a brand value increase of 97 percent, following a 52 percent increase a year ago. The Chinese online search brand Baidu, which is similar to Google, grew 46 percent in brand value.

In other highlights:

Amazon entered the Top 10 for the first time.

Facebook, the second fastest rising brand, increased 68 percent in brand value.

Twitter and LinkedIn entered the BrandZ™ Global Top 100 for the first time.

The backbone of all this insight remains BrandZ™, the world’s largest, customer-focused source of brand equity knowledge and insight, and WPP’s proprietary BrandZ™ brand valuation methodology. First we analyze relevant corporate financial data and strip away everything that doesn’t pertain to the branded business. Then we take a critical step that makes BrandZ™ unique and definitive among brand valuation methodologies.

On behalf of WPP, Millward Brown Optimor conducts ongoing, in-depth quantitative consumer research with more than 150,000 consumers annually, across more than 30 countries, to assess consumer attitudes about, and relationships with, over 10,000 brands. Our database includes information from over two million consumers. It reveals the power of the brand in the mind of the consumer that creates predisposition to buy and, most importantly, validates a positive correlation with better sales performance.

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