• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, October 12, 2023

The new Kantar BrandZ ranking stars many of the expected winners, with Apple, Google and Microsoft coming in as the three most valuable brands. What’s new, however, is a reversal of fortune, as the value of the Top 100 sinks 20% to $6.9 trillion, following two years of stratospheric gains.

Apple’s value falls 7% to $880.5 billion, Google sinks 30% to $577.7 billion, and Microsoft loses 18% to $501.9 billion. No. 4 Amazon falls 34% to $468.7 billion. McDonald’s gave up just 3%, slipping to $191.2 billion.

Visa, Tencent, Louis Vuitton, Mastercard and Coca-Cola round out the Top 10.

That marks Coca-Cola’s first time in the top 10 in seven years, increasing brand value by 8%.

The list includes 11 newcomers, with first-timer Shein, the apparel brand, landing at No. 71, and nine returnees, led by BCA, Airtel, ExxonMobil and Pepsi.

Among the biggest losers: No. 12 Facebook, with brand value dropping 50%; No. 14 Alibaba, down 46%; and No. 35 Adobe, down 45%.

Kantar, which has ranked holistic brand value since 1998, uses a formula that combines corporate financial data focused on the company’s branded business, with quantitative consumer research with 170,000 global consumers annually.

Despite those sharp declines, “consumers have retained their faith in the world’s biggest brands,” Kantar says in the report. “These brands have remained marketplace standard-bearers of powerful consumer connections – not despite this era’s financial upheavals, but in many ways because of them.”

And of companies making significant changes in operations, the research company says those that have retained the most value are those that “have married breakthrough innovations with longer-term, emotionally resonant brand building.”

Even with the 20% decline, Kantar notes the value of the top 100 still exceeds the $5 trillion in value reached in 2020. In 2022, the Top 100 valuation reached $8.7 trillion.

This year’s analysis finds that brands that excel in pricing power and differentiation, while also keeping up with evolving sustainability standards, outperformed others.

The most resilient categories are fast food, which shed just 4% of value, and food and beverages, which gave up 3%. Luxury also did well, losing 5%.

Media and entertainment fared worst, sinking 34%, followed by retail, down 27%, and business technology and services platforms, off 24%.