Apple retained its second place spot for the fifth year running on the world’s most valuable brands list compiled by branding valuation company BrandZ.
The firm values Apple’s brand at $352.2 billion. Unlike a market cap, which values the business as a whole, this brand valuation is designed to assess the value of the branding itself.
Although the methodology is based on millions of interviews and data points gathered throughout the year, there’s still a bit of guesswork involved since — despite what some haters might claim — people aren’t buying Apple products just for the logo. Apple also doesn’t license out its name or logo to third-parties.
You can read more on BrandZ’s methodology here.
By comparison, Apple’s current market cap is $1.62 trillion. Interestingly, when I covered last year’s report, Apple was going through something of a slump at the time, and was “only” worth $886.07 billion. That means it’s just about doubled its market cap since then. The brand value, however, has only increased from $309.5 billion to $352.2 billion. While certainly a nice increase in a year, it’s not quite the same as the market cap increase.
Amazon was listed in number one place on the list. Its brand value is $415.8 billion. Microsoft, Google, Visa, Alibaba, Tencent, FaceBook, McDonald’s, and MasterCard round out the top 10. It’s a reminder of just how dominant tech giants are today in terms of market awareness.
Source: BrandZ
