The Brooding Savage

The annual Brand-Z report of global brand valuations was released this week, and the results can tell us a lot about the road ahead for the emerging Mobile Web industry.

The survey is a listing of the world's 100 most valuable brands, compiled by WPP Group's Millward Brown unit. Brand rankings are determined by a combination of consumer perceptions, product performance, positioning and leadership.  As it turns out, the most valued brands generally correspond to the most financially successful companies -- and the largest increase in share price for those publicly traded.

The relationship between brand value and business success is not as obvious as you might think.  The Brand-Z study doesn’t take into account corporate performance when making the list.  A brand is measured on less tangible qualities.  What the study does show is that a well-positioned, innovative and successful public perception strongly impacts the success of a company’s share price – especially during a recession.

The good news is for Google, whose estimated brand value rose 30% over the past year to $86.1 billion, making it the most valuable of the top 100 brands analyzed.

Rounding out the top 10 brands are:

• 2. General Electric: $71.3B
• 3. Microsoft: $70.8B
• 4. Coca-Cola: $58.2B
• 5. China Mobile: $57.2B
• 6. IBM: $55.3B
• 7. Apple: $55.2B
• 8. McDonalds: $49.4B
• 9. Nokia: $43.9B
• 10: Marlboro: $37.3B
  

You can get a copy of the entire list here.

In layman’s terms, a brand defines the likelihood that a product will compare favorably against competitors if product details (such as feature set and pricing) were eliminated.  It’s the reason why generic products are less popular even though they’re lower priced.  It’s the reason why Coke performs better than Pepsi, even though blind taste tests show them to be largely indistinguishable.

In the coming years when corporate powerhouses begin to battle over emerging industries, you can bet highly listed brands will succeed while others will be forced to reduce prices or bundle expensive features in order to build market share.

What this Says About the Mobile Web

In the emerging Mobile Web industry, mobile carriers, media companies, and Web businesses will all compete to be the gateway for mobile consumers.  This is a space where no brands currently dominate – it’s essentially a level playing field.  As mobile phones become better at browsing the Web, consumers will be asked to select products based only on their pre-existing brand equity.  

In this instance, the top Web brands are poised to crush the competition on a global level. Google (#1), Microsoft (#3), Apple (#7) are tightly entrenched at the top of the Brand-Z survey, and they’re also among the fastest rising brands. Meanwhile second-tier web players like Amazon (#61), Yahoo! (#62), and eBay (#65) may find it hard to compete.  

Mobile operators appear further down the list, but their presence includes some regional brands that are poised to dominate in their home markets. Vodafone (#11) and Verizon (#33) will compete globally – and so will likely get crushed by Google and Microsoft.  Meanwhile China Mobile (#5), Japan’s NTT DoCoMo (#45), Spain’s Telefonica/Movistar (#88), and Russia’s MTS (#89) will be the strongest players in their respective markets – giving the global players a run for their money.

Interestingly, the media companies have almost no representation in the list.  Only Disney appears at #23.  Even the strongest media brands are absent, including MTV, CNN, Fox, BBC, etc.  We can infer that these media brands will end up as a packaged feature on one of the Portals or Operators services.

Other interesting Comments:

 
Technology brands dominate the list with 28 of the 100 brands.  Brands in the category have increased $187B in value over the past year.  This is more than half of the total growth for the entire list.

There’s a bifurcation between old and new Asia.  Seven brands in the survey come from older, established Asian economies: Japan, Hong Kong, and Korea.  But new Asian economies are gaining momentum, including four Chinese brands.  Additionally, the Chinese brands saw an increase of 51% in value, based on only a 7% increase among the established economies. 

Domestic brands are gaining ground on international brands – especially in emerging markets.  Brands like Apple and Gucci, that have international prestige are growing at a slower or even being supplanted by new brands that dominate in their region.  For example, China Construction bank and Bank of Chine are now threatening Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citi; and already have surpassed Deutche Bank and Chase.