World’s most valuable brands named: Apple falls from top of the tree

Google has been named the most valuable global brand and the most valuable technology brand in a study published today.

The search engine giant took the number one spot in this year’s BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study, beating last year’s winner, Apple.

In February, Apple took out the Brand Finance Global 500 list, but this new study suggests the tech company has slipped 20% in 12 months to be valued at $147 billion, while Google had grown 40% to be worth an estimated $159 billion.

McDonald’s was the only brand outside of the tech sector to make the top five, which included IBM in third spot and Microsoft in fourth.

Australia’s top preforming brand was the Commonwealth Bank, coming in at 44th on the list, after an 18% growth now saw it valued at $21 billion.

Woolworths and Westpac also made the top 100, coming in at 82 and 85 respectively.

To calculate value, the study took into account the brand’s potential and current buyers as well as its financial data.

Michel Hogan from Brandology told SmartCompany there were a considerable amount of brand value studies undertaken each year and every study had its own algorithms to define a brand’s value.

She said the most important factor for brand value was delivering the core promise of the organisation.

“Google always tops these sorts of lists because it delivers on its fundamental promise to make information available.”

New entrants to this year’s study included Twitter, with a brand value of $14 billion, and LinkedIn, worth $12 billion.