Google Tops Brand Value Rankings

According to UK research firm Millward Brown, Google has unseated Microsoft as the world's top-ranked brand.

The second annual Brandz survey (PDF) from UK research firm Millward Brown attempts to measure the “brand equity” of almost 40,000 consumer-facing brands by interviewing nearly 1 million consumers around the world, and taking into account brand momentum, a brand’s contribution to business earnings, and the brand’s overall value based on financial data. This year’s result? Google has unseated Microsoft as the world’s top brand.

“Success stories from this year’s Brandz Top 100 demonstrate that winning brands leverage major market trends effectively to create business value,” said Joanna Seddon, global CEO Millward Brown Optimor, in a release. “Strong brands are capable of extending into areas of opportunity to access new revenue streams and to help businesses respond to market changes.”

Corporate responsibility and service in emerging markets were also important factors in this year’s global assessment of brand rankings, as customers in markets like India and Brazil increasingly weigh in with their opinion.

This year, Microsoft dropped from the top slot to number three; Google also placed ahead of several well-known U.S. brands, including General Electric (#2), Coca-Cola (#4), Wal-Mart (#7), IBM (#9), McDonalds (#11), Nokia (#12), BMW (#14) and Apple (#16). Big movers in this year’s list included Starbucks, which rose 13 placed to number 35, and Apple which rose 13 places to number 16. The top non-U.S. company was China Mobile, which ranked highly at number 5.

Google’s top slot in the Brandz ranking is surprising: although the company is a leader in Internet advertising and services, the company actually does very little overt promotion of its own brand.