World's 10 most valuable brands

“The Apple brand is worth nearly twice as much as any other brand on the planet,” states Forbes.

Apple has topped the 'World's Most Valuable List' compiled by 'Forbes' magazine with a brand value of $104.3 billion.

Apple continues to be a part of people’s daily lives with its uniquely designed products, says Forbes. The company has been successful in making products simple yet very attractive.

Apple

Rank: 1 

Brand value: $104.3 bn

1 year value change: 20%

…

Microsoft

Rank: 2

Brand value: $56.7 bn

1 year value change: 4%

The value of the Microsoft brand is flat since last three years as the company struggles to make the transition from a PC to a mobile world, says Forbes.

"Growth has slowed, but it is still one of the most profitable brands in the world with operating margins of 34 per cent in its latest fiscal year," it said.

...

Coca-Cola

Rank: 3 

Brand value: $54.9 bn

1 year value change: 9%

Coca-Cola is the only non-tech brand among the top 5. Forbes states that Coca Cola which saw robust sales of its signatures drinks is also the first to record 50 million ‘likes’ on Facebook.

Forbes valued the brands on three years of earnings and allocated a percentage of those earnings based on the role brands play in each industry.

...

IBM

Rank: 4

Brand value: $50.7 bn

1 year value change: 5%

IBM has transformed itself into a powerful tech brand. It also has the maximum number of US patents during the last 2 decades, says Forbes.

The 100 most valuable brands span 15 countries across 20 broad industry categories.

...

Google

Rank: 5

Brand value: $47.3 bn

1 year value change: 26%

Internet giant Google has been listed as most visited website in the world by Alexa. One of the world’s most profitable companies, its revenues stood at $50.18 billion in 2012.

...

McDonald’s

Rank: 6

Brand value: $39.4 bn

1 year value change: 5%

McDonald’s has grown to become one of the world’s favourite restaurants with 34,000 restaurants across 119 countries.

In 2012, McDonald's Corporation had annual revenues of $27.5 billion, and profits of $5.5 billion.

...

General Electric

Rank: 7

Brand value: $34.2 bn

1 year value change: 2%

General Electric is listed as 4th-largest in the world among the Forbes Global 2000.

It has also been ranked as the 5th best global brand by Interbrand and 15th most admired company by Fortune.

...

Intel

Rank: 8

Brand value: $30.9 bn

1 year value change: -4%

Intel is the world's highest valued semiconductor chip maker based on revenue. However, the growth of smartphones and tablets has hit the fortunes of companies like Intel. 

Intel is the only brand in the top 10 which has seen a fall in brand value. 

...

Samsung

Rank: 9

Brand value: $29.5 bn

1 year value change: 53%

Samsung has the best one-year gain of any brand in the top 100, up 53 per cent to $29.5 billion. The company's value soared 136 per cent over the past three years.

"Sales for Samsung's Galaxy S4 smartphone have been on fire and the company also benefits from its market leading position with memory chips," Forbes said. It has a market share of 31.4%.

...

Louis Vuitton

Rank: 10

Brand value: $28.4 bn

1 year value change: 16% 

Louis Vuitton is the world’s most profitable luxury brand.

Its products include luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, sunglasses, and books.