In what really isn't the most entirely shocking piece of business news a survey has revealed that Apple is still the world's most valuable brand. Given that it is the world's most valuable public company and enjoys the fattest profit margins of any large scale company this isn't, as I say, all that much of a surprise.
The full report can be read here at Millward Brown. The methodology gives an idea of what they're trying to achieve. The most obvious example would be with a soft drink, Coke or Fanta say. There are any number of other and similar soft drinks out there, thousands of new ones launched every year. Clearly there's some part of the value of the producing companies which refers to simply making sugared and brightly coloured fizzy water. However, given that almost all of those many thousands of new entrants leave the market again after a matter of months there must be something about "Fanta" or "Coke" as a word, an image, a brand, which is adding value. And it's the capital value of that brand that they are trying to find.
In computing, with Apple, there's clearly some value over and above the mixture of hardware and software that the consumers are buying. There's not really all that much difference between an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy (as Apple has been at pains to point out in a number of courtrooms) or an iPhone and something running Android. Yet the Apple equipment sells at a substantial price premium simply because it is Apple. And it's that value that they're trying to find.
At the end of their calculations we get:
Apple has maintained its place as the world's most valuable brand over the past year, leading a group of technology-related companies that dominate the top 10, according to a study published on Tuesday.
The iPhone and iPad maker has boosted its brand value by 19 percent in the past year to $183 billion, or 37 percent of its market capitalization, according to the annual BrandZ study by leading brands and market-research agency Millward Brown.
There is always more than a bit of guesstimation in such numbers but that doesn't sound too far off. Apple has high margins, Apple gains price premiums for its products, simply because it is Apple and there's a capital value that can be assigned to those facts.
