Apple overtakes Coca-Cola as most valuable brand, study finds

9/30/2013

LONDON — Apple has unseated Coca-Cola as the world’s No. 1 brand, as the company founded by Steve Jobs is a leader in design, performance and focuses on customers, according to a study of the Top 100 brands by Interbrand.

Apple’s brand value jumped 28 percent to $98.3 billion, Google is now in second place at $93.3 billion, and Coca-Cola has slipped from the top seat after 13 years to third place at $79.2 billion.

“Every so often, a company changes our lives _- not just with its products, but with its ethos,” Jez Frampton, chief executive officer at New York-based brand consultancy Interbrand, said in a statement. Current Apple CEO “Tim Cook has assembled a solid leadership team and has kept Steve Jobs’ vision intact — a vision that has allowed Apple to deliver on its promise of innovation time and time again.”

The annual study, closely watched by the industry, determines a brand’s value by examining its financial performance, role in influencing consumer buying and ability to secure earnings. The Top 10 is rounded out in descending order by IBM, Microsoft, GE, McDonald’s, Samsung, Intel and Toyota. The 100 companies on the Interbrand list have a combined brand value of $1.5 trillion, an 8.4 percent increase from last year.

Technology names were among the biggest climbers. Google’s brand value rose 34 percent, while Samsung’s advanced 20 percent. Yahoo and BlackBerry fell off this year’s ranking. Nokia dropped to 57th place from 19th with the largest decline in brand value in the history of the 14-year study.

New names on the list include Discovery, Duracell and Chevrolet. The fastest-rising brands were Apple, Facebook, Prada, Google and Amazon.