the strength of the iPad has pushed Apple ahead of Googlefor the first time as the most valuable brand in the world,according to Millward Brown’s 2011 BrandZ study of themost-valuable global brands.

Apple ended a four-year run by Google at the top of thebrand ranking. But the study by the WPP research unit alsoshowed a changing of the guard among top brands in othersectors and an influx of new entrants from the so-called BRICcountries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—which collective-ly accounted for seven of the 11 newcomers to top 100 brands.While the eight top global brands are still U.S. based, Chinanow has 12 brands in the top 100, up from seven a year ago.

Remarkably, Amazon edged out Walmart as the most-valuable retail brand by Millward Brown’s accounting, withits brand value rising 37% to $37.6 billion as Walmart’s fell5% to $37.3 billion.

Walmart parent Wal-Mart Stores still has more than 10times the sales and more than five times the market capital-ization of Amazon. But BrandZ’s calculation subtracts tangi-ble assets from market value to help estimate brand value.Amazon, with no physical stores, fares well in that process.The Walmart brand value also doesn’t include Sam’s Club orother overseas affiliates with different brand names owned byWal-Mart Stores.

Even so, Amazon’s rise, combined with declines in brandvalue not only for Walmart but also for other top global retail-ers Tesco and Carrefour last year, marks the shift toward e-commerce.

“Amazon benefits incredibly by having user reviews inte-grated into its site,” said Eileen Campbell, global CEO ofMillward Brown.“Everybody does that now,but Amazon wasthe first, so it’s done an incredibly good job of building trust.”

The Publisher’s sale of this reprint does not constitute or imply any endorsement or sponsorship of any product, service or organization. Crain Communications 732.723.0569. DO NOT EDIT OR ALTER REPRINTS. REPRODUCTIONS ARE NOT PERMITTED. #125

© Entire Contents copyright by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

Apple ends Google’s four-year run as the most valuable brandMillward Brown BrandZ study finds Amazon besting Walmart as top retailer;BRIC entrants gain more ground

■ BY JACK NEFF jneff@adage.com

MAY 9, 2011Reprinted with permission from–

TOP RISERS*

1. FACEBOOK

246%

2. BAIDU

141%

3. WELLS FARGO

97%

4. BURBERRY

86%

5. APPLE

84%

MOST-VALUABLE BRANDS* IPad helped put Apple on top. Google’s drop is mainly attributable to a decrease in market capitalization.

84%➜

1APPLE

2%

➜

2GOOGLE

3IBM

4McDONALD’S

5MICROSOFT

6COCA-COLA1

23%➜ 2%➜ 8%➜7

AT&T

N/A

8MARLBORO

18%➜

9CHINA MOBILE

9%➜

10GENERAL ELECTRIC

12%➜17%➜

$153,285 M$111,498 M $100,849 M $81,016 M $78,243 M $73,752 M $69,916 M $67,522 M $57,326 M $50,318 M

BRAND VALUE2011:

% CHANGEFROM 2010:

Rebounding from a tough year battlingwidespread recalls and reports of qualityproblems, Toyota’s brand value rose 11% to$24.1 billion last year, putting it back atopautomotive brands.

But BP, hit hard by its Gulf of Mexico oilspill, took a 27% hit to brand value. And itmay not bounce back as quickly as Toyota,Ms. Campbell said. Toyota’s quick reboundreflects the underlying strength of the brand.But BP faces substantial doubts in surveysamong decision makers on drilling leases andcontracts, she said.

According to Ms. Campbell, growth oftablets and smartphones led to big gains inbrand value for a lot of tech and telecombrands, which occupied the top three spotsand six of the top 10.All but one of those, No.2 Google, gained brand value year over year.Google slipped 2% despite the success of itsDroid operating system.

In an email, Ms. Campbell said Google’sdrop is mainly attributable to a 4% decreasein market capitalization from the yearbefore and investments in such mobile plat-forms and the Chrome browser that shedescribed as “heavy and ahead of return.”Google’s exit from China only affects about2% of its revenues, she said, but did helpboost Baidu’s value.

“Google is still pretty hot,” she said. “Itremains one of the most-desirable and trust-ed brands we track.”

Down the list, BlackBerry’s brand valuealso slipped 20% last year, which Ms.

Campbell attributed to the once-dominantsmartphone brand not having as much new-product news as competitors.

The fastest growth in brand value came forFacebook,up 246% to $19.1 billion and No.35on the list. Chinese search engine Baidu wasthe second-fastest grower, leapfrogging dozensof older brands with a 141% increase to land atNo. 29 on the list at $22.6 billion.

Wells Fargo led a number of financialplayers whose fortunes rebounded from thefinancial crisis and recession of 2008 and2009. Its brand value nearly doubled, up97% to $36.9 billion, or No. 16. Overallfinancial players gained 9% in brand valueon average, as 15 of the top 20 financialbrands on the list gained in value, nine ofthem by double-digit percentages.

The insurance sector also gained substan-tially on the list, thanks heavily to newentrants on the list—China Life and PingAn—both from China and now ranking firstand second in their industry.

Fast-food brands also fared well, up22% collectively, led by McDonalds, up23% to $81 billion and No. 4 overallamong global brands. Ms. Campbell attrib-uted the strength of fast food to continuedfrugality among consumers turning awayfrom pricier options.

Not a single packaged-food brandappeared on the list, however, largely becausemost don’t have global reach.Wrigley fell offthe list not from any problem with its mar-keting but because it was acquired by private-

ly held Mars, so its datacould no longer be ana-lyzed. Some privately heldbrands, such as Facebook,however, still made the cutbecause of publicly availablevaluations, in its case fromGoldman Sachs.

Coke led beveragebrands, up 8% to $73.8 bil-lion, beating Budweiser, flatat $15.9 billion and Pepsi,up 1% to $12.9 billion.

Personal-care brandswere also fairly flat, up 3%,with growth led by L’Oréal,up 11%, and its siblingLancome, up 17%. Whilehigh-margin, market-dominant Gillette haslong been the most-valuable brand in person-al care, it slipped 4% last year to $19.7 billion,nearly overtaken by Procter & Gamble Co.sibling Pampers, up 11% in brand value to$19.4 billion.

BrandZ valuations are similar in someways to how an investment bank wouldvalue brands, Ms. Campbell said. They’rebased in part on brand-equity tracking sur-veys and financial data from Bloombergand analyst reports. Millward Brown usesthese data to calculate the earnings attribut-able to a brand, how much of the earningscan be attributed to a close bond with itscustomers and growth potential for thebrand-driven earnings.

© Entire Contents copyright by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

MAY 9, 2011

$44,440 M

11ICBC

1%

$43,647 M

2%

12VODAFONE

$42,828 M $37,628 M

N/A

13VERIZON

14AMAZON

37%

$37,277 M

5%

15WALMART

$36,786 M

16WELLS FARGO

97%

$35,737 M

17UPS

35%

$35,404 M

11%

18HP

$29,774 M

N/A

19DEUTSCHETELEKOM2

$28,553 M

20VISA

1-The Brand Value of Coca-Cola includes Lites, Diets and Zero. 2-Deutsche Telekom is in the process of re-branding its business to 'T', which incorporates T-Mobile, T-Home and T-Systems. *Source: Millward Brown Optimor (including data from BrandZ, Kantar Worldpanel and Bloomberg)

NEWCOMERS TO TOP 100*

53. DEUTSCHE TELEKOM$29,774 M

33. CHINA LIFE INSURANCE$19,542 M

35. FACEBOOK$19,102 M

43. AGRICULTURAL BANK OF CHINA

$16,909 M52. TENCENT/QQ$15,131 M

➜

➜➜

➜ ➜

➜ ➜ ➜ 15%