BrandFinance® Brandirectory

About this issue

The Brand Finance® Global 500 is the ranking of the most valuable global brands in 2011. 

This annual report pits the best global brands against one another in the most definative list of brand values available.

To read the report online Click Here

The value of the world’s top 500 brands continues its impressive recovery from the drop in 2009 of US$707 billion. The value of the top 500 as a whole grew by 14% to US$3,306 billion. There are several interesting trends to draw out from this.

The banking sector continues a steady drive towards rehabilitation in the eyes of consumers, having seen the largest brand value increase of any sector - US$90 billion.

By contrast, the brands of sectors specialising in consumer goods have not fared so well. The brand value of Coca-Cola has fallen by US$9 billion, reflecting a drop in the beverage sector as a whole. Walmart, which has topped the BrandFinance® Global 500 for two years running, has this year fallen to third place.

As well as highlighting the declining power of retail, the two companies which have overtaken it, Google and Microsoft, reflect the growing power of technology-led brands. These two companies, along with rival Apple, have all boosted their brand value by over US$8 billion while other technology and telecoms firms have also produced impressive results.

Finally, at a regional level, South America continues to perform strongly and has the fastest rate of brand value growth, 61%, for a second consecutive year. Brazil’s Itau and Bradesco have seen bigger brand value gains than almost any other bank, with over US$5 billion of growth each.

This report provides an opinion regarding the point in time valuations of the most valuable global brands at 31st December 2010. The sheer scale of these brand values show how important an asset these brands are to their respective owners. As a result, we firmly believe that brand valuation analysis can offer marketers and financiers critical insight into their marketing activities and should be considered as a key part of the decision making process.