- Apple landed because the most beneficial brand in Kantar’s latest BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands Report, a spot it reclaimed last yr after previously being unseated by Amazon.
- While the businesses at the highest have shifted, tech continues to dominate the list, with Google and Microsoft rounding out the highest three in 2023. Microsoft usurped Amazon, now at number 4. Fast food was the second highest-performing category overall, reflecting improved customer experience and communications.
- The 100 corporations within the rating represent a collective $6.9 trillion in brand value, a 20% drop versus 2022. Kantar noted that, despite the combination decline, brands have preserved longer-term growth trends and still have opportunities to shore up their value in trying economic conditions.
Kantar’s 2023 BrandZ rankings underscore a few of the challenges brands have faced over the past year-plus with inflation, changing consumer and regulatory demands and global strife. Of the highest 10 corporations on this yr’s list, just two — Coca-Cola and Louis Vuitton — improved their value over 2022. Some, like Google, experienced fairly precipitous declines, with the search giant’s value dropping from $819 billion in 2022 to $577 billion in 2023. Still, Kantar painted the state of the industry as healthy, with valuations up 47% over pre-COVID levels in 2019.
“This yr’s results — despite the autumn in aggregate value — are, in truth, a continuation of the long-term growth trend for brands, which began following the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and continued up until the beginning of the pandemic in 2020,” said Martin Guerrieria, head of Kantar’s BrandZ unit, in a press statement. “While the market has proved volatile and been greatly impacted by global macroeconomics, consumers’ view of brands has proved way more stable — the most beneficial brands on this planet remain as highly considered ever.”
Though Big Tech managed to remain at the top of the pack in 2023 and represent the very best total level of brand value, the sector has experienced a walloping, reputational and otherwise, coming out of the pandemic. Platforms like Google and Meta (f.k.a. Facebook) — the latter of which dropped off the highest 10 this yr — are contending with anemic revenue growth resulting from shifting privacy mandates and weakening advertiser demand. Mass layoffs have run rampant over the past yr, with efficiency the brand new name of the sport. Apple, which was on course to be the primary firm to hit a $1 trillion valuation in Kantar’s estimates last yr, saw its brand value drop to $880 billion, though that figure is nothing to scoff at.
The iPhone maker has grappled with slowing global demand for smartphones while recent bets, like an expensive mixed-reality headset, have yet to hit the market. Similarly, Google and Meta’s ramped-up investments in generative artificial intelligence remain within the experimental stages.
TikTok, the ByteDance-owned social video app, held its place because the second-most disruptive brand within the rankings, behind only Elon Musk’s Tesla, the leader within the automotive category with a valuation of $67.7 billion. TikTok has again been threatened with a U.S. ban, making its future within the region less certain.
Meanwhile, legacy brands posted impressive performance within the BrandZ rankings. Pepsi, which recently unveiled its first visual overhaul in over a decade, saw its value up 17% year-over-year to $18.8 billion, placing it back in the worldwide top 100 at number 91. Kantar said the corporate’s boost may very well be attributed to “great promoting.” Soft drink rival Coke was up 8%, pushing it back into the highest 10 for the primary time in seven years. Consumer packaged goods have been surprisingly resilient within the face of inflation, which has led many marketers to carry regular with ad expenditures that typically get culled in a downturn.
Fast food was one other brilliant spot, with Burger King, Chick-Fil-A and Starbucks standing out. The industry has benefited from improved customer support and marketing, in response to Kantar. Burger King, a once-flagging name amongst the key chains, has streamlined its drive-thru experience and menu while rolling out a wide-ranging brand refresh that has achieved viral success and helped reignite consumer interest in signature offerings just like the Whopper. Burger King’s brand value ticked up 8% YoY to $7.7 billion.
Despite some clear successes, there are other areas where marketers proceed to lag. Purpose-led issues like diversity and inclusion have come under heavy fire in 2023 amid heightened culture wars. Just 2% of the businesses named most beneficial by Kantar are perceived as leaders in sustainability.
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