Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes Staff
How do you measure the value of a brand? At Forbes, we look at the financial numbers. The most valuable brands are ones that generate massive earnings in industries where branding plays a major role. The 100 most valuable span 15 countries and cross 20 broad industry categories. Brands from U.S. based companies make up just over half the list with the next biggest representatives from Germany (9 brands), France (8) and Japan (7). Tech brands are the most common with 19, including four of the top five.
To determine the best brands, we started with a universe of more than 200 global brands. We required brands to have a presence in the U.S., which eliminated some big brands like multinational telecom firm Vodafone and state-owned China Mobile, which is the world’s largest mobile phone provider.
Our first step in valuing the brands was to determine earnings before interest and taxes for each brand. Forbes averaged those earnings over the past three years and subtracted from earnings a charge of 8% of the brand’s capital employed, figuring a generic brand should be able to earn at least 8% on this capital.
Forbes applied the maximum corporate tax rate in the parent company’s home country to that net earnings figure. Next, we allocated a percentage of those earnings to the brand based on the role brands play in each industry. (Brands are crucial when it comes to beverages and luxury goods, but not so much, say, with airlines, when price and convenience are more important.) To this net brand earnings number, we applied the average price-to-earnings multiple over the past three years to arrive at the final brand value. For privately held outfits we applied an earnings multiple for a comparable public company. Apple has been the most valuable brand the past three times Forbes has valued the world’s top brands.
Research: Courtney Retter
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