What price a brand? $100bn if you're Google

LONDON - Google's brand worth has increased 16 per cent in the last year, reaching $100 billion (£60bn), making it the most recognised and valuable brand in the world, according to a report.

The search behemoth has topped Millward Brown Optimor's BrandZ Top 100 list for the third consecutive year and while some may claim that the valuation is arbitrary, the research company says that brands' valuations are based on their ability to 'generate demand'.

The dollar value of each brand in the ranking is the sum of all future earnings that brand is forecast to generate, discounted to a present day value, Millward Brown Optimor said.

Google's high value may be inflated by its practice of branding almost every product it creates as Google, whereas Microsoft operates many secondary brands such as Bing and Hotmail. Second most recognised is Microsoft, valued at $76.2bn (£45.8bn), up 8 per cent on last year.

Coca-Cola, IBM, McDonald's, Apple, China Mobile, General Electric, Vodafone and Marlboro round out the top 10 brands.

The two brands that grew the most were Amazon, which moved up 85 per cent to $21bn (£12.6bn), and Blackberry, which rose 100 per cent to $27bn (£16.2bn).

The total value of the most valuable brands rose by 2 per cent to just less than $2 trillion (£1.2 trillion).

Published by: Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh

Published 10th August, 2009

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