For the last four years, Google has topped the Millward Brown BrandZ Top100 ranking of the most valuable brands globally, however today Apple has stepped over the search giant to claim the top spot. Apple increased their brand value by 84% between 2010 and 2011, allowing them to reach a record value of $153 billion.
The success of Apple in the brand rankings is mostly due to the success of the iPad, which sold more units in the time period than Macs, and iPhone – despite Android’s continued dominance in sales figures. Millward Brown also attributed Apple’s success to the company’s employees that “see protecting and nurturing that brand as a top priority.”
Google is now ranked second in the BrandZ Top100 with a brand value of $111 billion, followed by IBM ($101bn), McDonald’s ($81bn) and Microsoft ($78bn) – this makes four of the top five companies technology-based. Other notable inclusions are AT&T at spot seven making it the most valuable telecom provider brand; Amazon in spot 14, overtaking Walmart to make it the most valuable retail brand and Facebook takes #35 with a 246% increase over last year (the largest of any Top100 company).
Interestingly, while Apple may take the top spot in valuable brands, Google is still the most desirable technology brand and also the more trusted brand of the two. Millward Brown also saw Sony as a more trusted brand than Apple (but of lesser recommendation), however this will no doubt decrease drastically after the PSN outage crisis is factored into next year’s report.