Like quality management, brands are valuable to a company, but nobody is quite sure how to value them in cold, hard dollars. To that end, investors may want to consider the work done by London advertising giant WPP and its assessment of the most valuable brands in the world. As valuable brands often lead to above-average returns on capital and superior long-term stock market performance, the value of a company's brand is no trivial detail.
A Few Surprises at the Top of the List?
One of the highlights of WPP's latest report on brand value was that Apple has taken the top spot, surmounting Google. Honestly, it seems a bit of a surprise that it took Apple this long to ascend to the top spot, as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, and Apple's retail stores have been grabbing headlines and cover stories in business and tech media for some time now. Be that as it may, WPP assessed Apple's brand value at $153 billion, clearly putting Google and its $111 billion in the rear-view mirror. Perhaps even more surprising was that WPP's estimate of Apple's brand value jumped 84% from the prior year. (For more, see Can You Count On Goodwill?)
It was also interesting to see that the number three, four and five spots went to IBM, McDonalds and Microsoft, respectively. Coca-Cola is number six, while Disney appears nowhere in the top 10. Other anomalies include Wells Fargo appearing higher on the list (16) than Visa (20), American Express (40) or MasterCard (60).
To read the full column, please follow the link:
http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0511/Well-Established-Brands-Worth-Billions.aspx
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