Facebook falls from the top 10 Best Global Brands list

The value of Facebook’s brand continues to erode, down by a fifth in two years, according to the ‘Best Global Brands’ list compiled annually by Interbrand.

To form brand valuations, Interbrand analyses the financial performance of 2,000 brands, the role their brands play in purchase decisions and their ability to create “loyalty and, therefore, sustainable demand and profit into the future”.

Social network Facebook, subject of congressional scrutiny, data leaks, content moderation concerns, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, dropped five places in the list from 9th to 14th this year, suggesting its power is waning as scandals and scrutiny pile up.

At its peak in 2017, Facebook was ranked 8th with a brand value of USD$48.2m. Two years later at 14th, it is worth USD$39.9bn, indicative that the brand has taken a significant knock, despite the fact it will likely reached 2.5bn active monthly users this year

But it wasn’t the biggest faller on the list. General Electric (-22%), Gillette (-18%), Facebook (-12%), Huawei (-9%) and Canon (-9%) all saw their brand value plummet. Gillette’s struggles have been well documented, with decreasing sales despite a number of advertising campaigns to speak to the next generation of men. Huawei, on the other hand, has seen business in the west take a knock due to security concerns.

The top five brands to make the list were Mastercard, Salesforce, Amazon, Gucci and Starbucks, each seeing around a 25% brand value increase year-on-year. The combined total value of the top 100 is USD$2,130,929m, an increase of 5.7% from 2018.

Uber (87th), LinkedIn (98th) joined the list for the first time while Dell (63rd) rejoined after falling away in 2013.

The top five sectors were luxury, media, financial services, technology and sporting goods. The report points out that only two financial brands made the first rankings, compared now to 12.

Below is a comparison of the 2019 and 2000 tables.

Charles Trevail, global chief executive of Interbrand, said: “For decades, the entire discipline of brand-building was based on the concept of brand positioning, but in today’s accelerating markets, customer expectations outstrip static brand positions. Brands can no longer be considered separate to businesses and will be judged on what they do, not just what they say; and about trust, not just delivery.

“The age of brand positioning is over. In a world where customer expectations will continue to move faster than businesses, static brand positions and incremental change will just about keep brands in the game – but it will take, brave, we would say ‘iconic’, moves, to make brands leap ahead of customer expectations and ultimately deliver extraordinary business results.”

source:http://www.thedrum.com