Amazon Rated World's Most Valuable Brand, With Apple Weakening

Amazon has overtaken Google as the world’s most valuable brand, beating a host of rivals in a tech-dominated list.
Amazon (AMZN) was rated as the world's most valuable brand, knocking Google from the top spot down to third while Apple (AAPL) maintained a tentative hold on second place.

The Brand Finance Global 500 report placed a value on the Amazon brand at $150.8 billion, a 42% jump from last year's report. Apple received a brand valuation of $146.3 billion, up 37%, with the Google brand owned by Alphabet (GOOGL) at $120.9 billion, up 10%
The report says brand value is equal to the net economic benefit that an owner would achieve by licensing the brand.

"The strength and value of the Amazon brand gives it stakeholder permission to extend relentlessly into new sectors and geographies," David Haigh, chief executive of consulting firm Brand Finance, said in a written statement. "All evidence suggests that the amazing Amazon brand is going to continue growing indefinitely and exponentially."

Amazon is set to report fourth-quarter earnings after the market close Thursday. Amazon shares were up 1.6%, near 1,460 during afternoon trading on the stock market today, hitting an all-time high.
Brand Finance went on to say, however, that the future of Apple's brand value looks bleak.

"Apple has failed to diversify and grown overdependent on sales of its flagship iPhones, responsible for two thirds of revenue," the report said. "With the advent of emerging world brands like Huawei, Apple's increasing focus on what are effectively luxury products may cost the brand a fair share of the global mass market, limiting the potential for brand value growth."

Apple is expected to deliver solid earnings growth for the December-ending fiscal first quarter on Thursday. But several analysts expect Apple to guide lower for the current March quarter due to weakening iPhone X demand.
The report also had a warning for Google

Similar to Apple, Google's focus on particular sectors — search, cloud computing and mobile — is holding it back from unleashing the full potential of its brand, the report said. It put Google's YouTube as a separate brand, in the 42nd spot with a $26 billion valuation, more than double from last year.
For the first time since the inception of the Global 500 study, technology brands claimed all top 5 places. Samsung was fourth at $92.3 billion, followed by Facebook (FB) at $89.7 billion. It was followed by AT&T (T), Microsoft (MSFT) and Verizon (VZ).
Of the world's top brands, 42% are based in the U.S., followed by China at 15%, then Germany and Japan, both at 7%.

Amazon was up 0.9% to 1,450.89 on the stock market today, while Apple added 0.3% to 167.43.

February 02, 2018