Kantar BrandZ has released their Most Valuable Global Brands for 2021 and it demonstrates the power of strong brands, particularly in a crisis.
In the past year, the world’s strongest performing brands have been more resilient and recovered faster, with many surging in value.
Once again, Amazon tops the Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brand index. According to Kantar BrandZ, Amazon has grown 64% in the past year and is now worth US$684 Billion.
Apple has also had a good year, increasing their brand value by 74% to be the 2nd most valuable brand and worth US$611 Billion.
Google, Microsoft and Tencent make up the top 5 Global Brands, with Facebook, Alibaba, Visa, McDonalds and Mastercard all in the Top 10.
Despite the global pandemic, the total value of Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands has grown by 42%, to reach US$7 trillion.
Telsa is the fastest growing brand and the most valuable car brand, ranked at 47. The value of Tesla has increased by 275% to US$43 Billion.
This year also saw several Chinese brands more than double their value with Moutai (no.11, US$109bn), Meituan (no.34, US$52bn), TikTok (no.45, US$44bn) and Pinduoduo (no.81, US$22bn).
There were 13 new entrants to the Top 100 this year. One notable entrant was Zoom (52), demonstrating how tech companies have perhaps benefited from lockdowns and changing behaviours as a result of the pandemic.
Tech companies rule the rankings, accounting for more than half of the value of the index. In 2006, they only represented a quarter of the top 100’s value.
This year was dominated by US brands, accounting for 56% of the top 100. China also grew its presence with 18 brands. Unfortunately, there were no Australian brands in the top 100.