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Google overtakes Apple as ‘most valuable brand’ of 2014 in new study

Millward Brown’s annual BrandZ study, which was released today, points to Apple as the second most valuable brand just below Google. This is a reversal from the previous study, which found Apple ranked just above Google.

In the study, Google’s brand value was calculated at $158,843,000, while Apple came in at only $147,880,000.

Of course, this study doesn’t actually point to which company is the most valuable. Instead, Millward Brown uses a combination of financial information—including projected future sales—and customer surveys to determine how much a brand is worth—or how much of the company’s value comes from customers’ views of that company. The entire process of determing a brand’s value is explained in detail on the Millward Brown website.

Essentially, information from customer surveys is used to determine a “brand contribution” number for each company. This number refers to how likely customers are to remain loyal to a company and other similar factors. This “brand contribution” is then multiplied by certain financial figures and the resulting figure is “brand value.”

This “brand value” represents how much of the company’s overall value comes from its brand. If it sounds a non-scientific, that’s probably because it is. Still, it’s interesting to see how consumers and firms like Millward Brown rank these companies.

 

 

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Comments

  1. anthonysanjuan - 10 years ago

    Bye Apple… Skynet is coming…

  2. Strange. What changed since last year? Google has done much at all recently.. no significant purchases, sold Motorola and sold overly expensive developer Google Glass to the public for a couple days.

    • rogifan - 10 years ago

      Probably just the cumulative effect of all the negativity towards Apple in the media. Doesn’t help either when Apple decides to go quiet for 6+ months allowing others to create the narrative and hog the spotlight.

    • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

      >>What changed since last year?

      They paid more to bribe whoever did the survey.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        So Apple didn’t pay enough? You do understand that’s the implication you’re making here, right? You’re saying that Apple has been the winning bidder in bribing companies for previous years and now Google has just paid more.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        >>So Apple didn’t pay enough?

        Given that they paid nothing, apparently so.

        Keep your ludicrous nonsense to yourself, please.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        You’re the one who implied they did. Keep your idiocy to yourself rather than open your moronic mouth.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        Nah, how about you only read what is written and not what you’re pretending is written. Okay? Thanks.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        Ah, so you’re just an idiot. I get it.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        Learn what context is, please.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        Learn to think before you speak, please.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        Just speak on a different website. One where your behavior doesn’t come across as a mental illness.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        What a worthless retort from an insignificant piece of trash. It pleases me that you get so angry because a few people on this website actually think for themselves rather than praising every single thing Apple says.

        Just so you know, that doesn’t mean I hate Apple, as you infer when anyone disagrees with something Apple does. It just means you have the mental capacity of a rock.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        How about you just take your lies and post them on 9to5Google instead? Seems like that’s the option that doesn’t make you look like you’re out of your mind.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        I’m out of my mind because I like Apple but don’t praise every single they do? Do you see how idiotic you’re being?

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        Hey, keep up that fantasy, man. Anyone can see you don’t believe what you’ve just said.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        Would you like photos of all my Apple products? I can do that, but you’ll ignore the proof just like you ignore the proof of other stuff I’ve posted images of that prove you completely wrong.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        Every single thing you say continues to prove me right. The above is straight from rule #5 on my list.

        Shut up and go away, you worthless, pathetic troll.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        As expected, you continue to avoid proof, love to remain an ignorant moron, and just act like the petulant piece of trash you are. I feel sorry for you.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        Can’t prove a negative, son. Enjoy your psychosis.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        So when I get home and produce a photo of my Macbook Air, iPad and iPhone you’ll change your tune? Of course you won’t, you’re a piece of shit.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        No one cares how many Apple products you do nor do not own. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any argument anywhere, you psychotic pile of garbage.

        Just stop trolling. That’s all we ask.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        You’re the only moron (along with another troll) who seems to be projecting their bullshit on to me. I’ve never once trolled on this site. If someone doesn’t agree with Apple, you kick and scream like a child that they’re trolls and cry that they should leave. You’re the only one here people want to leave, especially among us Apple supporters. You make people who like Apple look really bad.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        >>I’ve never once trolled on this site

        Hilarious, kiddo, as always.

      • mpias3785 - 10 years ago

        @Tallest Skil & thejuanald
        Jeez, the original article used less bandwidth than your off-topic squabbling. Give it a rest, I’m tired of getting email notices that one of you says: “No, you’re the doo-doo head”

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        Then turn off e-mail notices.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        No, you’re the doo-doo head.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        And for a second there I thought your intellect was in question.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        Ah, not understanding that I was mocking what mpias3785 said. Great.

  3. password92 - 10 years ago

    He’s looking for attention with that rating. Purely subjective and not true IMO

  4. fredhstein - 10 years ago

    Per Yahoo finance:
    AAPL counts Goodwill at $1.5B
    GOOGL counts it at $15B

    Both wisely dismiss this a ephemera.

  5. mpias3785 - 10 years ago

    Odd, I tend to avoid all things Google when I can. I dislike feeling like nothing more than a source of data points that they will sell to the highest bidder.

    In my case their name has high recognition but mostly with negative connotations.

    • standardpull - 10 years ago

      Your avoidance is pointless. Google owns most of the ads sent to your browsers. They own Doubleclick too. Each one lets Google build up a permanent record of your online activity. Avoiding Google is like avoiding germs. They’re unavoidable if you step into the internet. They can determine nearly everything about you. They can know you.

      • mpias3785 - 10 years ago

        I use an ad blocker. I haven’t unwillingly seen an ad on my computer in a very long time. Even if I have an occasion to use to a unblocked browser, I never click on ads.

  6. Gollum - 10 years ago

    This is pure lunacy. Don’t pay any attention to it.

    • tomcwatts - 10 years ago

      But if it were Apple on top, like they have been for the last 3 years, then you would be advocating this kind of information, right? Don’t let your brand loyalty to a corporate entity cloud your impairment to think critically, you “bozo”.

      • Gollum - 10 years ago

        Look, confirmation bias is one thing. Your premiss, suggests I am being hypocritical. However to give credibility to an out of box non-peer reviewed research is crazy. Especially since it’s based completely on a different metric.

        Example: Let’s say this apple weighs more than this orange. Putting them on a scale proves it. Now some guy comes along as says, no that’s not true. You can measure the mass of an object by how much light bounces off it, in fact the orange weighs more than the apple.

        However it’s more subjective than that and it’s difficult to pin down the value of intangible “objects” as if branding were an actual thing. My gut feeling is that their evaluation is way off, and untestable.

    • tomcwatts - 10 years ago

      All of the major tech sites are reporting the exact same thing as this article, that never happens unless there is solid merit to the topic, because the journalists know there are consequences for not researching properly. I think it’s ridiculous to dismiss it as untrue or inaccurate, when we all know Apple isn’t innovating like they did with Steve around, and Google is thriving right now. Everyone here is treating this news as if it couldn’t possibly be true, that Google could never be more valuable than Apole. Things change. It’s entirely possible, and likely, that this report is accurate.

      • Gollum - 10 years ago

        I have recently noticed this. So my stance will change. The original report I read stated evaluations in the 100 mill. When later I am seeing 100 bill. And that is why I had trouble with the report. If the first blog I read was wrong, then my understanding is wrong too.

  7. Victor O - 10 years ago

    A note – this study has nothing to do with public perception or the overall quality of the brand. How to figure this out: ExxonMobil is in the top 50. Bank of America is in the top 100.

    This is kind of shitty non-newsworthy thing to report, and even shittier to report this without better context.

  8. Dr Will (@ringolaunch) - 10 years ago

    Millward Brown is part of WPP, an advertising & public relations company according to Wikipedia. Samsung is one of WPP’s largest clients. Does this may explain the great disparity with Interbran’s ranking of Apple? I will have a long think about this.

  9. airmanchairman - 10 years ago

    Anti-social (Glasshole) Vapour-ware (Flying Cars) do not make or enhance brand value or innovation capability.

    Until such a time as the “latter-day Oracle of Delphi” assembles a slew of shipping, real-world functionality adopted and adapted for use by cutting edge industries like Aviation, Medicine, Movie and Audio Creation, Sales and many more, reports like this are just subjective conjecture.

    AirPlay, AirDrop, AirPrint, Siri, Accessibility SDK, iBeacons, FlyOver, FindMyiPhone, in-App Audio, CoreMIDI, 64-bit mobile CPU & OS, CarPlay and the stunning new MacPro are examples of real-world innovations being progressively implemented across several industries and adding REAL value to Apple’s brand.

    As for blood sugar monitoring, I would wait a few weeks for Health Book to emerge, among other ground-breaking new technologies, from WWDC 2014.

    • tomcwatts - 10 years ago

      Hahaha, this is too funny! You fanboys are actually denying solid information because you cannot accept Google is innovating more than Apple. You can deny this article all you want, because it’s not totally official. But when the official figures are released you will look like absolute morons.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        Shut up and go away, you useless, pathetic troll. How worthless can you be, posting on a website about a company you hate?

  10. Jim Phong - 10 years ago

    Google.. masters of bribes and accounting faking…

    • tomcwatts - 10 years ago

      So by your own logic, pre this news Apple was the Apple was the master of bribes and “accounting faking” for 3 years straight? Your logic is extremely close minded.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        There have been a lot of people in this thread who don’t understand what they’re implying about Apple by saying that Google paid the highest price for this.

  11. tomcwatts - 10 years ago

    Is anyone surprised? Apple hasn’t innovated anything worthy in the last 2 years. They have great laptop’s and desktops, but making them thinner and slightly faster every year is in no way innovative. The iPhone 5s, adds nothing innovative to the market, the 5c is an over expensive abomination. The iPad Air progressing just like the macbooks. IOS 7 is in no way innovative, it’s just an overly colourful re-skin. CarPlay, laggy, and serves no new purpose. The list goes on. Well done Google.