Apple overtakes Cocacola as world's number 1 most valuable brand

For thirteen years, Cocacola was the world's number one most valuable brand...but not
anymore. In 2013, two brands took over - Apple and Google, leaving Cocacola at number three.
From New York Times
Apple is the new most valuable brand in the world, according to a closely followed annual
report. The report, to be released next Monday, is from Interbrand, a corporate identity and
brand consulting company owned by the Omnicom Group that has been compiling what it
calls the Best Global Brands report since 2000. The previous No. 1 brand, Coca-Cola, fell to
No. 3.
Not only has Apple replaced Coca-Cola as first among the 100 most valuable brands based
on criteria that include financial performance, this is the first time that
the soft drink known
for slogans like “It’s the real thing” has not been No. 1.
Apple’s arrival in the top spot was perhaps “a matter of time,” Jez Frampton, global chief
executive at Interbrand, said in a recent interview. Apple was No. 2 last year, climbing from No.
8 in the 2011 report.
“What is it they say, ‘Long live the king’?” Mr. Frampton asked. “This year, the king is Apple.”
The 2013 report begins: “Every so often, a company changes our lives, not just with its
products, but with its ethos. This is why, following Coca-Cola’s 13-year run at the top of Best
Global Brands, Interbrand has a new No. 1 — Apple.”
The report estimates the value of the Apple brand at $98.3 billion, up 28 percent from the 2012
report. The value of the Coca-Cola brand also rose, by 2 percent to $79.2 billion, but that was
not sufficient to give Coca-Cola a 14th year as Interbrand’s most valuable brand.
Although “Coca-Cola is an efficient, outstanding brand marketer, no doubt about it,” Mr.
Frampton said, Apple and other leading technology brands have become “very much the poster
child of the marketing community.”
That is underscored by the brand in second place in the new report: Google, which rose from
fourth place last year. In fact, of the top 10 Best Global Brands for 2013, five are in technology:
Apple; Google; Microsoft, No. 5, unchanged from last year; Samsung, 8, compared with 9 last
year; and Intel, 9, compared with 8 last year.
Samsung’s ascent followed the company’s adoption of a new brand strategy called the Brand
Ideal, which includes “a greater focus on social purpose,” Sue Shim, executive vice president
and chief marketing officer at Samsung, said by e-mail. That reflected research indicating
American consumers would switch brands to “one that was associated with improving
people’s lives,” she added.
I.B.M. — No. 4 in 2013, down a notch from 2012 — is ranked as a business services brand.
Otherwise, technology would account for six of the top 10.
“Brands like Apple and Google and Samsung are changing our behavior: how we buy, how we
communicate with each other, even whether we speak with each other,” Mr. Frampton said.
“They have literally changed the way we live our lives.”
Among other transformative technology brands that performed well in the new report was
Facebook, which climbed to 52 from 69 last year, its first year on the list.
However, not all technology brands fared well. BlackBerry, which tumbled last year to 93 from
56 in 2011, has disappeared from the list. And Nokia, which dropped to 19 from 14 in 2011,
finished this year in 57th place — “the biggest faller” among the 100, Mr. Frampton said.
Among nontechnology brands, a notable addition to the list was Chevrolet, at 89, the first
General Motors brand to rank among the Best Global Brands.
“It feels good to hit the list for the first time,” Alan Batey, global head of Chevrolet at G.M.,
said in a telephone interview. “It’s a great first step, but we’ve got a long way to go. There are
a lot of big brands in front of us.”
The milestone reflects how General Motors has been “making a conscious effort to globalize
Chevrolet,” Mr. Batey said, selling the brand in 140 countries in ads that play up attributes like
“value for money and designs that move hearts and minds.”
Commonwealth, the creative agency for Chevrolet, “played a key role” in helping the brand
make the list, he added. Commonwealth is part of the McCann Worldgroup division of the
Interpublic Group of Companies.
Last year, when Coca-Cola finished atop the Best Global Brands list for the 13th consecutive
time, an executive at the Coca-Cola Company acknowledged the streak but noted that “nothing
lasts forever.”
A year later, the executive, Joseph V. Tripodi, executive vice president and chief marketing and
commercial leadership officer, had this reaction: “Of course, we would like to remain on top of
the list forever. That said, we are honored to continue to be included among such an esteemed
group of global brands, and we congratulate Apple and Google, both valued partners of ours.”
“We’ve seen the value of technology brands rise as they create new ways for people to stay
connected virtually,” Mr. Tripodi said by e-mail. “We understand this, as the lasting power of
our brand is built on the social moment of sharing a Coca-Cola with friends and family.”
“Creating these simple moments and delivering on our brand promise each and every day
remains our focus,” he added, “as we continue to grow the value of brand Coca-Cola for
decades to come.”
If it is consolation, Coca-Cola remains far ahead of Apple and Google in likes on Facebook fan
pages. Coca-Cola has 73.2 million, compared with 9.8 million for Apple and 15.1 million for
Google.