HSBC is the only UK name on $13 trillion list of top global brands
The rise of AI has shaken up an influential ranking of global big-name firms, as the competition to become one of the world’s elite brands becomes fiercer than ever, according to an influential index tracking the corporate elite.
The Kantar Brandz Top 100 – which ranks the value of brands – unveiled on Thursday, is topped by a troika of US tech behemoths amid the artificial intelligence boom.
Google came first, followed by previous chart-topper Apple, and then Microsoft in third.
But only one UK name made it onto this year’s wider list: HSBC, which reclaimed its spot.
Amazon was just off the podium, taking fourth place. Nvidia, the AI chip firm was fifth, followed by Facebook and Instagram in six and seventh respectively, although both are owned by Meta.
Tencent, the Chinese multinational in eighth place, is the only non-US firm in the top 10, which is rounded off by Oracle the software giant and then legendary fast food firm McDonald’s.
Research from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and Kantar found that brand strength can help firms outperform wider stock indices, including the S&P 500.
HSBC flying flag for Britain
Kantar put the combined value of the brands included at “a record $13.1 trillion”, a rise of over a fifth on last year.
Its top four members each have brands that have “broken the trillion-dollar threshold,” Kantar said.
According to the data and analytics firm, the 21srt edition of the list reveals how “people are now experiencing brands through thousands of AI-shaped moments, from personalised feeds to Large Language Models that influence what we see and choose”, Kantar said as it revealed the latest line-up.
“Standing out as meaningful and different has become more important for brands, not less”, the analytics company added.
Brands must be ‘meaningful, different and salient’
Asian brands continued to rise in prominence. Almost a quarter of the list comes from the region, including online marketplace Alibaba and the insurer Ping An.
Closer to home, European names came from the worlds of fashion and luxury, in Zara and Hermès, as the world’s most valuable fashion and luxury brands, respectively.
Kantar’s Peter Aitken told Morning Wire what it takes to get on the list: “You need to recognise what’s important for customers, but you also need to do that in a way that seems unlike any others in the category.
“Brand equity is formed on three characteristics. Firstly, the perception that the brand gives you something that you want, we call that being meaningful.
“Secondly, [the brand] stands out, offering something that seems unique in the category, something that others don’t. We call that being different.
“And there is something that comes to mind quickly when you want to buy in that category. We call that being salient.”
‘Britain is not short of talent’
Kantar Brandz has been around since 1998 and has held interviews with 4.6m consumers, for over 22,000 brands in 54 markets.
Its Top 100 rankings, it says, “combine rigorously analysed financial data with extensive brand equity research”.
With a high bar for entry to the list and only one UK name on it, Aitken identified where there is room for improvement: “Britain is not short of talent, innovation or engineering capability. The challenge is scaling that.
“What we see in the US and the conditions that exist in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen in China, they create the conditions to have a much greater ecosystem for these brands to grow.
“The challenge for Britain is taking these local heroes and allowing them to grow.”