Tech companies make up seven of top 10 global brands

Apple dominates at No. 1, followed by IBM and Google

If there was any doubt about how valuable tech companies are becoming, all you need to do is look at Millward Brown’s annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands. Tech companies dominated the list this year in such a way that no other industry could even compete.

The report, released on Tuesday, showed that Apple, which is now worth nearly $520 billion, was once again the top brand in the world, a distinction they held last year as well. Apple saw its "brand" value rise over 19% from last year.

Tech companies dominated this year’s list with IBM, Google and Microsoft all in the top five, and seven of the top 10 brands being mobile companies.

IBM was a distant second, with its brand value rising 15% to be worth $116 billion, $67 billion less than Apple. IBM switched places with Google, which slipped to third, after being No. 2, coming down 3%, making the company's brand worth over $107 billion. Microsoft, worth $76.7 billion, down 2% from 2011, was in fifth place.

AT&T, Verizon and China Mobile rounded out the top 10. The only three non-tech companies to make the top 10 were McDonalds, at No. four, and Coca-Cola, at No. 6, and Marlboro, at No. 7.

The company that saw the biggest gain in brand value was Facebook, which saw its value shoot up 74%, making it worth over $33 billion at No. 19 on the list. 

There were 11 new companies added to the list this year: Common Wealth Bank, Moutai, Airtel, MTN, Ikea, KFC, Chevron, Volkswagen, State Farm, DHL and Sinopec, which was the highest ranking new company at number 53.

MTN is the first African, and Commonwealth the first Australian, brand, to make the list, which has been compiled since 2006.

The industries with the biggest gains in brand value were luxury and fast food, which went up 15% each, and apparel, which went up 13%.

The biggest loser, by far, was the insurance industry, which went down 16%.

Overall, Millward Brown said in the report, the 100 brands on the list are worth $2.4 trillion dollars in brand value.

Brand value is done by calculating brand earnings, and multiplying that by predicted future earnings to get the brand financial value.  They then determine "brand contribution" by researching over two million people to find out their feelings about particular brands. They then multiple the brand contribution and the financial value together to determine the brand value. 

(Image source: shanahfied.blogspot.com)