Apple topples Coca as No. 1 brand globally – Interbrand

ITRealms:

The latest brand analytics from Interbrand, a consulting firm has shown that Apple is now the most valuable brand globally.

ITRealms gathered that based on Interbrand findings, especially with the iPhone 5 by Apple, the brand was reported to have been valued at $98.3 billion, about N15,880,625,069,973.41 trillion by Interbrand.

According to the report today, Monday, Interbrand, a corporate identity and brand consulting company owned by the Omnicom Group that has been compiling what it calls the Best Global Brands report since 2000. The previous No. 1 brand, Coca-Cola, fell to No. 3.

Additionally, the report showed that not only has Apple overtaken Coca-Cola as first among the 100 most valuable brands based on criteria that include financial performance, Interbrand said, this is the first time Coca has not been No. 1 in almost a decade.

Global chief executive at Interbrand, Jez Frampton, had recently noted that Apple’s emergence was perchance “A matter of time” just as ITRealms recalls that Apple was No. 2 last year, climbing from No. 8 in the 2011 report.

“What is it they say, ‘Long live the king’? This year, the king is Apple,” He asserted.

Part of the 2013 report stated: “Every so often, a company changes our lives, not just with its products, but with its ethos. This is why, following Coca-Cola’s 13-year run at the top of Best Global Brands, Interbrand has a new No. 1 — Apple.”

In addition, the value of the Coca-Cola brand also rose, by 2 per cent to $79.2 billion, but that was not sufficient to give Coca-Cola a 14th year as Interbrand’s most valuable brand, as Apple clinched it with $98.3 billion.

Although “Coca-Cola is an efficient, outstanding brand marketer, no doubt about it,” Mr. Frampton said, Apple and other leading technology brands have become “very much the poster child of the marketing community.”

That is underscored by the brand in second place in the new report: Google, which rose from fourth place last year. In fact, of the top 10 Best Global Brands for 2013, five are in technology: Apple; Google; Microsoft, No. 5, unchanged from last year; Samsung, 8, compared with 9 last year; and Intel, 9, compared with 8 last year.

Samsung’s ascent followed the company’s adoption of a new brand strategy called the Brand Ideal, which includes “a greater focus on social purpose,” Sue Shim, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Samsung, said by e-mail. That reflected research indicating American consumers would switch brands to “one that was associated with improving people’s lives,” she added.

International Business Machines (IBM) was ranked No. 4 in 2013, down a notch from 2012, is ranked as a business services brand. Otherwise, technology would account for six of the top 10.

“Brands like Apple and Google and Samsung are changing our behavior: how we buy, how we communicate with each other, even whether we speak with each other,” Mr. Frampton said. “They have literally changed the way we live our lives.”

Among other transformative technology brands that performed well in the new report was Facebook, which climbed to 52 from 69 last year, its first year on the list.

However, in Nigeria, ITRealms also gathered that Apple iStore in Ikeja Shopping Mall is the home for everything Apple in Nigeria, according to the Executive Director, Rutger-Jan Spaandonk.

Further, ITRealms recalls that Apple iStore at Ikeja is the authorised Apple reseller in Nigeria and has several initiatives since the store opened for business, including plans to offer free training to customers on Apple hardware and software.

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