William Gallagher
Kantar claims that Apple has grown its nebulous brand value by 55% to top its chart of the 100 most valuable brands in the world.
If it's dubious how a dollar value can be ascribed to a brand, that doesn't stop many companies trying. Recently, Apple topped the annual Brand Finance Global 500 rankings, although it then came only third in Brand Intimacy according to MBLM.
Now Kantar, which most recently reported on subscription losses at Apple Music and its rivals, says that Apple's brand is worth $947 billion.
Kantar's full report does outline the methodology behind its calculation, which it calls "The Meaningfully Different Framework." At its heart is a survey, although few details are given.
Nonetheless, however a final figure is arrived at, the same calculation is done for all companies so there is at least a point of comparison between them. So according to Kantar, the top five most valuable global brands in 2022 are:
- Apple, worth $947,062 million
- Google, worth $819,573 million
- Amazon, worth $705,646 million
- Microsoft, worth $611,460 million
- Tencent, worth $214,023 million
"The combined value of the world's Top 100 most valuable brands has increased by 23% to $8.7 trillion over the past year," says Kantar's report, "highlighting the importance of brand strength in navigating an unsettled global economy."
"With a brand value of $947.1 [billion]," it continues, "Apple stands out for its high degree of differentiation and continued diversification across its hardware, software and services portfolio."
"Google moves up to second place and is one of the fastest risers in the ranking, increasing its brand value by 79% to $819.6 [billion]," says Kantar.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
3 Comments
Glad you're calling these reports out for the dubious BS that they are.
Who cares....Apple could be the 500th most wealthy company in the world. Doesn't change my view on Apple one way or the other.
Please stop overusing the word spurious — especially in headlines. It makes your writing spurious.
For the rest of you who are like “oh this is b.s.” — almost everything that human beings do is a construct reliant on belief and justification. Most of all the calculation of any kind of value. For instance, your income. So stop acting like there are legit ways of evaluating these things. It’s all subjective and illusory.
There’s no indication here that they’re trying to fool anyone, be deceitful, falsify facts, or are born of parents not married to each other. Could their Methodology be better? Probably. But as you pointed out, putting a value to brand is no easy thing.