Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands 2023

Apple retains its crown as the world’s most valuable brand, holding the title for the second year in a row, in the Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands Report 2023. The latest ranking shows that the total brand value of the world’s top 100 brands now stands at $6.9 trillion for 2023. Despite a 20% drop in the overall index vs 2022, the Kantar BrandZ Top 100 retains its long-term growth trajectory, posting 47% growth compared to the pre-pandemic (2019) level.

With a brand valuation of $880bn, Apple has proven resilient in the face of testing market conditions, justifying premium prices with positive perceptions, and proving that meaningful, different and salient brands are best placed to weather global economic disruption. Google and Microsoft complete the top three, as technology brands, once again, are the most represented in the Top 100, commanding the largest share of brand value. 

Key highlights from the 2023 report include:

•  16 brands grew in brand value across the Top 100 – with Airtel (No.76; +24% and Pepsi (No.91; +17%) achieving the highest brand value growth vs 2022.

•  Nine brands returned to the Top 100 – including Colgate (No.95), Sony (No.99) and Pampers (No.100).

•  The Luxury, Fast Food and Food & Beverages categories proved to be the most resilient to market fluctuations.

•  Brands improving their ability to justify a higher price than competitors, based on the strength of their equity with consumers, grew at twice the rate – adding 67% to their brand value over the last four years.

The 14 leading Chinese brands on the list

Amid continued global economic slowdown, strong brand power remains an effective good luck charm for companies and a torch to help light the way forward. In, 2023 Chinese brands showed remarkable momentum by actively blazing a trail of counter-trend growth in the post-pandemic period, boosting their global reputation with confidence.

Tencent withstood mounting challenges to remain in the global top 10, while Chinese cross-border e-commerce giants Shein and Nongfu Spring bucked market trends to make the list for the first time. Haier continued to build a new paradigm of "rainforest"-like eco-branding and steadily improved its brand performance.

“The number of Chinese brands on this year's Top 100 list is unchanged from last year, and we congratulate the 14 leading Chinese brands on the list for embracing great certainty in the consumer environment," said Doreen Wang, Kantar Greater China CEO and Global Chair of Kantar BrandZ. "No top brand is guaranteed to be immune to market fluctuations, but consumer perceptions and attitudes toward truly strong brands remain stable despite the many upheavals in the market. Were it not for the support of strong brand equity, the total value of any of the brands on the list could face significant declines.”

"The 'gradual rebound' of the Chinese market is very exciting, showing a consistent focus on the high-quality development of brands. The power of brand innovation is crucial and irreplaceable,” she said. “Brands must always stand with consumers, constantly meet people's aspirations for a better life, and build up core competencies that can last beyond the current cycle and remain steady for a long time. The expansion of brands into multiple categories or markets can enhance risk resilience, meaning that Chinese brands may be well-served by reaching into new segmentation needs and playing a greater role in the overall ecosystem.”

Based on this year's report, Doreen offers three brand development recommendations to China's brand owners:

* VALUE FROM ALL CORNERS

This year, the sales of both fast food and luxury goods are proving resilient. What top brands from both categories share is a tendency to excel in consumer perceptions of value: fast food is a ‘great value for the money’ – but so, too, are top luxury brands, because of the way their products represent a ‘justified premium’ that will retain their value over successive years. Across most consumer-facing categories – from autos to alcohol – brands’ luxury and low-cost propositions thrived, while offerings with more muddled value propositions struggled.

* AI CHANGES THE GAME

It’s clear that the pace of technological progress in the AI realm has kicked into a new gear -at the same time that the technology has reached a kind of cultural tipping point in the public imagination. From Microsoft to Google to Meta, major brands announced plans to fundamentally revamp their operations via the use of natural language processing AI. Then, brands in categories like personal care, retail, and apparel began to tout their own forays into generative AI – with promises of new advances (and forms of personalisation) across customer service, design, innovation, and marketing. Kantar has incorporated AI into its market research and testing tools.

* BUNDLED UP

The rise of splashy multi-brand collaborations and consumers’ reinvigorated search for value– have come together to shape the contours of a third emerging practice: the rise of the cross-category bundle. Telecom brands now entice customers to their services by tying smartphone airtime to a bevy of entertainment subscriptions, banking offers, and even food discounts. Retail giants, meanwhile, have gone beyond free shipping to tie their membership programs to gas deals, streaming passes, and healthcare benefits (including pharmacy discounts and wellness app passes). That is now more available to all.

* SUSTAINABILITY FOR ALL

Sustainability remains an untapped opportunity for brands -- only 2% of the brands on the list are considered "leading" in this area. Investing in sustainable development is the general trend, and brands that perform well in this area can also achieve faster value growth. Sustainability is the most important driver of corporate reputation, accounting for 45% of the total and contributing US$193 billion to the global top 100 brand value.

With sustainability becoming a priority for consumers worldwide, brands must adopt practical strategies quickly to capitalize on the growth potential of the present era. "In China, brands need to establish sustainable systems tailored to the local market to promote an environmentally friendly economy," said Lynn Zhang, Managing Director of Kantar China. "One way to become more environmentally conscious is to reduce and reuse packaging. This simple action will encourage consumers to take more action toward sustainability. In the long term, recycling and exploring new materials are crucial for implementing sustainable strategies."

2023 Success Stories

Pepsi’s brand value has soared 17% year-on-year, reaching a total value of $18.8bn and taking Pepsi back into the global ranking at No. 91. Defined by great advertising, the brand has grown its price premium positioning in the US while being considered a ‘value’ brand across the rest of the world. At the same time, Coca-Cola (No.10) showed great resilience, increasing its brand value by 8% and breaking back into the Top 10 for the first time in seven years.

TikTok (No.41) is still perceived as the second most disruptive brand in the Top 100, behind Tesla (No.25). Tesla continues to be considered a true game-changer, ranking No.1 in the Automotive category, with a 2023 valuation of $67.7bn. Outside the Top 100, Ferrari makes its debut in the Top 10 Automotive brands with a valuation of $7.8bn, increasing demand and perceived value to consumers even through the most challenging market conditions. Emerging brands competing in the EV space, and which are likely to gain value in the future, include Polestar, Li Auto and Genesis.

Food & Beverage brands demonstrated the most resilience as an overall category, declining just 3% year-on-year. Doritos proved the value of its superior taste messaging, ranking No.19 in this category, with a brand value of $5.4bn – one of many brands in this year’s report that shows functional benefits can be the key to outperforming competitors.

Fast Food was the second-highest performing category. Brands that outperformed in this space include Burger King, Chick-Fil-A and Starbucks. Resilience in the industry is being fuelled by greater exposure and better experience. Burger King, for example, cut drive-thru times with menu simplification and digital boards and invested more heavily in brand communications. The brand has been rewarded with a 2023 value of $7.7bn, an increase of 8% compared to last year.

Luxury brands retained their allure even with steady, incremental price increases. Louis Vuitton is the only luxury brand in the global Top 10, rising two places to No.8, with a brand value of $124.8bn. Dior is the fastest-growing brand in the category, increasing its brand value by 9% to $11.4bn. The category’s strong overall performance highlights the excellent job luxury brands are doing at leveraging their distinctive assets to drive higher demand and pricing power, despite economic challenges.

“Brands need to continue investing in brand-building, product and market diversification to grow,” said Sirius Wang, Kantar Greater China CPO & Kantar Marketplace Greater China CEO. “This year’s results clearly show that, even in the current macroeconomic environment, it remains possible to find growth in any category and territory with the right strategy focused on establishing and maintaining strong connections with consumers. BrandZ analysis proves that perceived difference is a key predictor of share growth. Promoting any sense of difference and making it more known and more relevant to consumers will boost brand value in the long-term”.

To meet the diverse needs of brand growth, Kantar has deeply integrated its BrandZ database and Marketplace platform's rich automated brand insight tools to launch the Kantar BrandTek brand power ecosystem, driven by technologies including AI real-time data interpretation, comprehensive and accurate collection of digital ecological samples, and Analytics Dashboard with data analysis functions.

Brands can understand industry trends and key brand performance through bi-monthly data insight reports, track the performance of tens of thousands of brands in over 40 markets worldwide through BrandSnapshot, assess the competitiveness of their brands in overseas markets based on BrandNow and Kantar's Global Brand List, or get professional advice on brand development through Brand2.0 and more. Brand2.0 and other automated tools and customized programs offer the ability to deeply evaluate a brand's competitiveness in the market and obtain professional brand development advice.

All brands listed on the Kantar BrandZ Global Top 100 this year can contact Kantar to obtain a Chinese version of the brand's exclusive BrandSnapshot to quickly understand the brand's performance, its competitiveness level in the industry and SWOT analysis suggestions through the BrandZ database.

Top 100 Full Ranking

The Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands 2023 ranking, report and extensive analysis are available now via 👇 (Click 'Read more') 

About Kantar:

Kantar is the world’s leading marketing data and analytics business and an indispensable brand partner to the world’s top companies. We combine the most meaningful attitudinal and behavioural data with deep expertise and advanced analytics to uncover how people think and act. We help clients understand what has happened and why and how to shape the marketing strategies that shape their future. 

About Kantar BrandZ:

Kantar BrandZ is the global currency when assessing brand value, quantifying the contribution of brands to business’ financial performance. Kantar’s annual global and local brand valuation rankings combine rigorously analysed financial data, with extensive brand equity research. Since 1998, BrandZ has shared brand-building insights with business leaders based on interviews with 4.2 million consumers, for 20,000 brands in 54 markets.