Google breaks $100bn brand value threshold. Emerges as worlds No 1 brand

According to BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2009 ranking, Google has emerged as the world’s number one brand and become first company to break $100bn brand value threshold. Microsoft, with a brand value of $76.2 billion, occupies the second rank. Other popular online websites like Amazon.com, eBay and Yahoo have been placed at the 26th, 54th and 81st positions with a brand value of $21 million, $12.9 million and $7.9 million respectively.

The BrandZ top 100 ranking is an authoritative ranking report about the most valuable brands in the world. The valuations are based on economic and market data and the proprietary consumer research from BrandZ – the world’s largest study of consumers and business-to-business users’ brand preferences. The result is the most comprehensive and authoritative brand valuation available.

The Valuation Process
1. Branded Earnings
What proportion of a company’s earnings is generated “under the banner of the brand”?

First, the branded earnings are identified. For example, in the case of Coca-Cola some earnings are not branded Coca-Cola, but come from Fanta, Sprite or Minute Maid. Once identified capital charges are subtracted. This ensures only value above and beyond what investors would require any investment in the brand to earn is captured: The value the brand adds to the business. This provides a bottom-up view of the earnings of the branded business.

2. Brand Contribution
How much of these branded earnings are generated due to the brand’s close bond with its customers?

The portion of these earnings driven by brand equity is called “Brand Contribution”: The degree to which brand plays a role in generating earnings. This is established through analysis of country-, market-, and brand-specific consumer research from the BrandZ database.

This guarantees that the Brand Contribution is rooted in real-life customer perceptions and behavior, not spurious ‘expert opinion’: in some categories, brand is important — luxury, cars, or beer, for instance. In categories like motor fuel, on the other hand, price and location play a very strong role. Furthermore, as markets develop, consumer priorities and the role of brand may change. And even in strongly branded categories, some successful brands that compete heavily on price.

3. Brand Multiple
What is the growth potential of the brand driven earnings?

In the final step, the growth potential of these branded earnings is taken into account. Both financial projections and consumer data is analyzed. This provides an earnings multiple aligned with the methods used by the analyst community. It also takes into account brand specific growth opportunities and barriers. To capture the weaker economic outlook, all projections have been validated using IMF economic growth forecasts. The Brand Momentum™ indicator that indicates each brand’s growth is based on this evaluation. It is presented as an indexed figure that ranges from 1 to 10 (10 being high).

Brand Value = Intangible Earnings * Brand Contribution * Brand Multiple

Despite the economic downturn, the value of the top 100 brands has risen by 2% to about $2.00tn

The Top 100 list is dominated by American brands with no Indian brands making to the list.

There are 15 new brands entering the ranking this year. Pampers is the highest entrant at no. 31, followed by Nintendo (no.32) and VISA (no.36). Trends identified from this year’s rankings are:

Value — Brands that represent good value for money have done well, this is about quality as much as price, for example Wal-Mart (+19 percent), ALDI (+49 percent) and Auchan (+48 percent). H&M (+8 percent) is now the number one apparel brand.

Vice — People still reward themselves with little treats when money is tight. Brands such as McDonald’s (+34 percent), Marlboro (+33 percent) and Budweiser (+23 percent) have all done well.

At Home — Brands that can be experienced at home have shown strong growth. This includes home shopping: Amazon (+85 percent) and eBay (+16 percent); Coffee that can be prepared at home: Nespresso (+27 percent) and Nescafe (+23 percent); and gaming — Nintendo jumped into the ranking for the first time at no. 32.

Wireless — The increased popularity of using the internet on the move through devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry has led to huge increases for the mobile operators category as a whole, driven by demand for data services. Vodafone enters the top 10 for the first time this year (+45 percent).

Following are the top 10
# Brand
1 Google
2 Microsoft
3 Coca Cola
4 IBM
5 Mc Donalds
6 Apple
7 China Mobile
9 GE
10 vodafone


Visit following link to read entire report BrandZ Top 100 2009 Report