Apple, Google and IBM top the Brandz chart

Unsurprisingly, Apple, Google, IBM, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola continue to dominate the top five positions as the most valuable global brands of 2013 in the annual Brandz charts by Millward Brown.What is surprising, however, is the exceptional growth of Samsung, which – though sitting at the 30th ranking – demonstrates the second highest growth of all the brands at 51%; followed by Visa at 46% and The Home Depot at 43%. The brand that grew the most is Prada at 63%; it currently sits as the fourth largest brand in the luxury category.In the technology realm, 2013 is also the first year Tencent surpassed Facebook in places 21 and 31, respectively.Also revealing a shocking development is the growth in beer brands, which upped the charts by a 36% growth and are now worth a combined US$63billion. The report attributes this upward change to growing sales in Latin America and China.Regionally, a total of 12 Chinese brands made it to this year’s charts. Though this number surpasses that of Japan and Korea, 2013 saw a decrease in number of brands and total brand value of the country’s brands, which the report attributes as a bottleneck in their growth and suggests them to be more technologically innovation and international in their growth.Chinese names who made it onto the list are mostly in the banking sector with the likes of ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, China life, Bank of China and Pingan Bank.David Roth, CEO of The Store at WPP, commissioner of the report, said: “This year’s ranking highlights the return on investment that brands give businesses. It shows that strong brands bring market share growth, increased profits from being able to command a price premium and greater shareholder returns.”The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brandz Ranking is in its eighth year of operation. It combines measures of brand equity based on interviews with more than two million consumers globally about consumer-facing and business-to-business brands.