Apple kicks Amazon from the throne
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For the first time since 2016, Apple is leading the Brand Finance ranking of the world’s most valuable brands. The iPhone group increased its brand value by 87 percent in 2020 and ousted Amazon from the throne.
Once a year, Brand Finance’s management consultants, who specialize in brand valuation, compile a ranking in which they list the most valuable brands in the world. In the current edition “Brand Finance Global 500 2021”, Apple was able to oust the e-commerce giant Amazon from the top. It is followed by other tech companies with Google, Microsoft and Samsung. Apple owes its jump from third place to the top to an increase in its brand value of 87.4 percent to 263.4 billion US dollars.
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Apple: Digital service focus is paying off
Behind it is according to Brand Finance Above all, that Apple has broken away from the iPhone as an outstanding growth and sales driver and is increasingly relying on digital services and subscription services such as the App Store, iCloud or Apple Music. As recently as 2015, iPhone sales accounted for two thirds of total group sales. Last year, the iPhone should have been responsible for only half of sales. An example of the success of diversification under Apple boss Tim Cook: On New Year’s Day alone, users spent 540 million dollars on the app store.
The strategy resulted – in an already very positive stock market environment – with Apple becoming the first company in August to achieve a market capitalization of two trillion dollars. Amazon is also on the way to double trillion. Although it had to give up its top position in Brand Finance’s brand ranking, it was able to increase its brand value by 15.1 percent to 254.2 billion dollars in 2020. Google in third place – after rank two in the previous year – was only able to increase by 1.4 percent and holds at 191.2 billion dollars.
The biggest plus was recorded by the electric car manufacturer Tesla, similar to the share price. Elon Musk’s company increased its brand value by 158 percent to $ 32 billion. The share rally of the past few months has certainly contributed to this. In just one year, Tesla gained $ 500 billion in market capitalization and is now worth as much on the stock market as the nine largest auto companies combined.
Brand equity: Difficult year for the automotive industry
For the entire automotive industry, the year 2020 was rather difficult in terms of brand value development. The industry leader in the last edition of the ranking, Mercedes-Benz, lost ten percent (58.2 billion dollars) and this year Toyota (up two percent to 59.5 billion dollars) had to overtake them. Nevertheless, Mercedes-Benz remains Europe’s most valuable brand. E-On made the biggest leap in Europe, increasing by 59.3 percent to $ 4.7 billion.
