- Brand Finance, a brand consultancy firm, released their most recent
- The firm looks at marketing investment, stakeholder investment, and business performance to help it measure how much each brand contributes to the company.
- E-commerce, in general, dominated the list, with
The 10 most valuable brands in the world (AMZN)
Brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance ranked the 500 most valuable brands in the world in 2018, with Amazon, Apple, and Google holding the top spots.
Amazon is the most valuable brand in the world — but Walmart and Alibaba aren't far behind.
Brand Finance's 500-strong ranking shows how overwhelmingly digital of an age we live in, with a number of e-commerce brands taking top spots in the ranking. Home improvement stores like Home Depot, Lowe's, and Ikea also have retained spots in the top 10, with Home Depot's value up 12% from last year.
Target saw the greatest drop in value, down 20% from last year. According to Brand Finance, the brands that dropped in value are still trying to adapt to the digitalization of the industry, while online-only brands like Amazon and Aliaba are on the rise.
Here are top 10 most valuable brands, according to the firm's rankings:
10. Target
Brand value: $13.67 billion
Percentage change from last year: -20%
Last year's rank: 7
Target is losing value fast as it struggles to keep up with ecommerce focused brands, but is adding new initiatives like same-day delivery of online orders to become more competitive. Even though it's value is down, Target reported same-store sales were up 6.5% in the second quarter.
9. Lowe's
Brand value: $14.02 billion
Percentage change from last year: +1%
Last year's rank: 9
Lowe's hold's onto the same spot it held last year. It recently closed the Orchard Supply Hardware chain it aquired last year to focus on the Lowe's brand.
8. Walgreens
Brand value: $15.54 billion
Percentage change from last year: -3%
Last year's rank: 8
Walgreens value is down -3% from last year. were down by 1.2% at Walgreens
7. JD.com
Brand value: $19.62 billion
Percentage change from last year: +47%
Last year's rank: 11
JD.com, a Chinese online retail giant, is growing extraordinarily fast — last year, the company didn't even hold a spot in the top 10 most valuable brands. In June, Google announced it would be investing $550 million in JD.com
6. CVS Health
Brand value: $20.6 billion
Percentage change from last year: -12%
Last year's rank: 6
CVS Health's value is down, were up by 1.6%.
5. Ikea
Brand value: $24.35 billion
Percentage change from last year: +1%
Last year's rank: 5
Ikea remains consistent with the almost the same value as last year. The brand was ranked fifth last year as well.
4. Home Depot
Brand value: $33.74 billion
Percentage change from last year: +12%
Last year's rank: 4
Home Depot holds onto the fouth spot from last year. 2,284 stores
3. Alibaba.com
Brand value: $54.92 billion
Percentage change from last year: +58%
Last year's rank: 3
The Chinese company Alibaba.com is ranked in the same spot as last year, but the e-commerce giants value is up nearly 60%.
2. Walmart
Brand value: $61.48 billion
Percentage change from last year: -1%
Last year's rank: 2
While Walmart defends the number two ranking, its value remains roughly the same as last year.
1. Amazon
Brand value: $150.81 billion
Percentage change from last year: +42%
Last year's rank: 3
Up 47% from its 2017 value, Amazon is the largest online business by market capitalization and revenue. Beyond being an online retailer, it produces cloud infrastructure and electronics and is present in music and video streaming. In addition, the 2017 $13.7 billion Whole Foods acquisition took Amazon from the digital to the physical realm.