Google sneaks into top 10 global brands

Google entered the top 10 of the global brand charts with a brand valuation of $ 25.6 billion, increasing 43% since last year. This is according to Interbrand, which has become expert at putting a figure to brands over the last 20 years.

Jeremy Sampson, Founder and Group Executive Chairman at Interbrand, was discussing the latest report from Interbrand: Best Global Brands 2008, at the UCT GSB Deloitte lunch time chat last week.

The results were pretty interesting for anyone following brands – here is a quick overview of the headlines. You can pick up the full results on the Interbrand website.

Biggest winners:
Google     up 43%
Apple       up 24%
Amazon   up 19%
Zara         up 15%
Nintendo  up 13%

The common factor amongst these brands is that they tap into the “we want what we want, when we want it, as we want it” culture and react very quickly to changing trends, said Sampson.

Biggest losers:
Ford                    down 12%
Citi                      down 14%
Morgan Stanley   down 16%
Gap                     down 20%
Merrill Lynch        down 21%

Ford in particular is lagging its competitors such as Toyota and Honda because it has not yet embraced green and sustainable technologies. Gap is lost in some sort of a fashion middle ground and so has seen three drops in a row. And finally, says Sampson, although this valuation was completed in June 2008 – it definitely signalled some of the rough water financial services firms were going to find themselves in.

New entrants of note:
H&M, Thomson Reuters, Blackberry (Canada’s only brand in the list), Ferrari, Armani, Marriott, Fedex and Visa.

And finally, the top 10 global brands:
1.    Coca-Cola    $66.66 billion
2.    IBM        $59.03 billion
3.    Microsoft    $59.00 billion
4.    GE        $53.08 billion
5.    Nokia        $35.90 billion
6.    Toyota        $34.05 billion
7.    Intel        $31.26 billion
8.    MacDonalds    $31.04 billion
9.    Disney         $29.25 billion
10.    Google        $25.59 billion

Source: Interbrand

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