McDonald's remains the only non-technology (including e-commerce) brand in the top 10 of he annual BrandZ ranking of global brands.
130-year-old soft drink brand Coca-Cola, which has been a mainstay of the global top 10 by brand value since the report was launched in 2006, is out of the top 10.
The brand was third after Microsoft and GE in the inaugural edition. But it was soon overtaken by the likes of Google and by last year had slid down to 8th place.
Google topped the 2016 list, valued at $229.2bn, up 32 per cent over the previous year.
Besides McDonald's (up 9 pc), brands which have climbed above Coke in the past year include Facebook (up 44 pc), Amazon (up 59 pc, highest growth among top 10) and Chinese tech company Tencent (up 11 per cent, moving to number 11 on the list).
The only top 10 brand to register a drop in value is Apple, at $228.5 bn (down 8 pc), but still in second place with over double the value of next-placed Microsoft.
Millward Brown’s BrandZ valuation process takes the financial value created by a brand in US dollars and multiplies it by the proportion of that value generated by the brand contribution alone. That brand contribution is derived from consumer research that quantifies how much of the volume people purchase and how much of the price premium people pay can be attributed to brand equity.
This year the value of the Coca-Cola brand fell for the first time in the survey's history, by 4 per cent to $80.3bn, amid growing public awareness of the risks to health from the sugar content of soft drinks and despite respectable growth in the Coca-Cola Company's share price.
It has sunk to 13th place in the 2016 rankings, which, in an irony which Coca-Cola executives will not appreciate, is one below tobacco brand Marlboro.
Coca-Cola did not respond to a request for comment. However, the company appears to have already taken action which could help the brand regroup. In January this year it ditched the different brand personalities for Coca-Cola Life, Coca-Cola Zero and Diet/Light Coke and unleashed a global campaign in which the brands were marketed as Coca-Cola variants.
The Top 10
1. Google: $229.2bn, up 32%
2. Apple: $228.5bn, down 8%
3. Microsoft: $121.8bn, up 5%
4. AT&T: $107.4bn, up 20%
5. Facebook: $102.6bn, up 44%
6. Visa: $100.8bn, up 10%
7. Amazon: $99bn, up 59%
8. Verizon: $93.2bn, up 8%
9. McDonald's: $88.7bn, up 9%
10. IBM: $86.2bn, down 8%
(Adapted from an article that first appeared on CampaignLive.co.uk)
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