Apple has retained its position at the top of the annual Brand Finance Global 500 value survey, despite losing ground to Korean rival Samsung.
The iPhone and iPad manufacturer managed to retain its position at the top largely because of the lead it earned last year. Samsung, buoyed by the success of its S3 smartphone, enjoyed a brand value increase of 54 per cent.
David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said: “Brand is one of many intangible assets which drive profitable growth. Technology, contractual, human capital and customer intangibles as well as general goodwill all drive overall corporate value.
“With revenues in the tens of billions, Apple and Samsung are slugging it out for global brand supremacy and are vying with each other to create strong ‘customer love’ for their brands. However, there are other brands in the Global 500 that though they may never challenge the brand value giants, are nonetheless extremely powerful and well-loved.”
Google, Microsoft and Walmart made up the rest of the top five most valuable brands, while the five strongest, according to brand rating were Ferrari, Google, Coca-Cola, PwC and Hermes.
The Brand Finance Global 500 takes into account leading brands from both the B2C and B2B worlds.
Read more over at the Brand Finance website.