Which Global Brands are the Strongest?

Recently, a video showcasing the top 15 best global brands has gone viral. It does a great job of portraying the brand value growths and declines over the years of the strongest brands in the world.

It was published by the YouTube channel TheRankings, which used the Interbrand technology.

You can see that Coca-Cola was sitting comfortably at the top until the year 2013 when it was overtaken by Apple. From there onwards, Apple continued to see massive and unstoppable growth.

In 2008, you can see another giant has entered the race: Google. Google continues its steady rise to the top culminating in solidifying in second place in the year 2013. There is just something about the year 2013! That is also the year that Facebook, and with it the whole concept of social media, became popular.

Let us also not forget about the giants of the past, for example, IBM, Nokia, and Marlboro. It has been over 30 years since we started to address the potential dangers of smoking. Even still, Marlboro was able to stay in the top 15 until the year 2008. Nokia fell from grace in the year 2012, just around the time smartphones started booming. Apple rose to the top at the same time, which is no coincidence. IBM was a strong contender for many years, until the year 2017, when it was overtaken by the likes of Amazon, Samsung, and Toyota.  

The comment from one user sums it up nicely, „We went from soda to the internet“.

The video, which now has more than 6 million views, underlines that entertainment and technology are what most of the top brands have in common. The battle for innovation and new forms of entertainment is what seems to drive the top companies. It was certainly an interesting video and there is a lot that we can learn from it. It will definitively be interesting to see how the trend continues in the future.