The value of the top global brands, which are largely comprised of technology companies, grew at an astonishing 42% since 2020.
With global technology brands leading the way amidst pandemic uncertainty, differences in brand value and year-over-year growth abound. Most large tech business, even those outside of hardware, still obtain large volumes of patents to support their unique business model.
Based on 3.8 million consumer interviews and financial data from 17,801 brands across 51 markets, the world’s 20 top brands are almost all technology generators. This is according to the Top 100 Brands for 2020, as presented by the Visual Capitalist.
The Most Valuable Global Brands (tech and others) have grown by an incredible 42%, according to Kantar BrandZ in its 2021 survey. “They increased in value by $2.1 trillion with a growth rate that is 4.5 times the average growth rate for the Global Top 100 over the past 15 years.”
Tesla’s brand value was up 275%, TikTok 158%.
Measures: Market Value or % Annual Growth
Of the top 20 tech brands, the biggest annual rise in value was from Microsoft (30%) and Instagram (47%). Instagram grew on a much lower base. Two of the four Chinese companies on the list grew in value (Tencent and Huawei) and two declined.
Most of the top 20 have expansive global patent portfolios, although a few (e.g. Instagram, Accenture), appear not to be as directly dependent on patents as those that sell products like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Intel.
Microsoft received 2,905 patent grants in 2020 alone; Apple received 2,792; both have tens of thousand of active global patents in their portfolios. Even Amazon, an online retailer, received approximately 2,000 or more U.S. patents from each year from 2017 to 2020.
Patents are a significant part of what makes Amazon, Amazon, and what generates its extraordinary brand value.
The net-net: positive recognition may be king, but tech companies – even those in ecomm and retail – still need to back up brand equity with lots of patents. Many of their patents are untested, showing that portfolio nature and size still matter and do not have to be litigation-tested.
Eight American (tech oriented) companies are listed in the top ten companies for brand value. They include a retailer, hardware seller, cloud businesses and a finance company. The only non-U.S. companies to make the list: Tencent and Alibaba.
Ten Most Valuable Brands
Fast-risers on the top brand 100 worth keeping in an eye on include Zoom, Costco and Spotify.
While patents matter, other intangibles obviously count, too: AT&T, at 14 on the top 100 brands list with brand value of $100 billion, is listed just ahead perennial patent leader IBM, at 15, with $91 billion.
Image source: visualcapitalist; BrandZ
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