The beverage giant Coco-Cola, with a valuation of US$71.9 billion, stands out as the world's most valuable brand this year, followed by IBM(US$ 69.9 billion) and Microsoft(US$59.1 billion), according to the leading international brand consultancy Interbrand's latest best global brands report.
Coca-Cola has claimed the top dog spot for the 12th straight year, while Apple, which announced the iPhone 5 on October 4, saw its brand value surge 58 percent to US$33.5 billion, helping it edge into the top ten list for the first time.
The world's largest online retailer Amazon posted the second biggest increase in its brand value, which went up 32 percent to US$ 12.8 billion.
Nokia, which has been struggling to crack the smartphone market, slipped from 8th last year to 14th this year, with its brand value plummeting 15 percent to US$25.1 billion.
The top ten best global brands are all from the United States, which dominates this year's list with 49 renowned brands.
The Interbrand publishes its best global brands report every year, with the results based on the brand's financial performance, the role of brand in the purchase decision process and the strength of the brand to secure the delivery of expected future earnings.
Following are the top 100 most valuable brands in the world in 2011:
Rank | 2010 Rank | Region/Country | Sector | Brand Value ($m) | Change in Brand Value |
20 | 22 | United States | Business Services | 17,262 | 16% |
By now, everyone knows that the battles lines in technology have been drawn around software, and that the future war will be fought in the cloud. Luckily for Oracle, they seem to have known this earlier than most; they look very strong in the fight. After turning the Sun Microsystems profitable in less than two years, the company reached a market capitalization in December that was nearly equal to that of rivals HP and SAP combined. Always a major M&A player, Oracle recently has demonstrated the ability to drive organic software growth. And the brand's historically strong internal culture—brand, marketing, engineering, R&D, product, IP—which is focused on doing what needs to be done to drive business, continues to leave it in the enviable position of being relatively well understood by customers. While others reshape, recast, and retrench in the ever-changing technology ecosystem, Oracle has the luxury of digging in deep.