Apple ranks #1 in Best Global Brands once again

Interbrand recently released its list of top 100 brands for 2014, and this year Apple is in the top slot. Valued at nearly $119 billion, Apple is now considered the leading brand around the world along with other big name tech companies who continue to dominate the Best Global Brands List each and every year.

Google comes in second, valued at a whopping $107 billion, followed closely by IBM and Microsoft taking the fourth and fifth slots. The only non-tech company in the Top Five was the tried-and-true Coca Cola Company coming in third.

Of the top 100 companies on Interbrand’s list, 13 are in the tech field, and 5 of those are actually in the Top Ten ranks. Samsung was also a big winner, ranking seventh. But perhaps even more important to note is the dethroning of Coca Cola by both Apple and Google. For 13 years, the soft drink conglomerate has been the brand to beat, and it finally happened in 2014.

Tech giants are easily soaring past such staple brands of industry like MTV and Walt Disney. Even high end luxury retailers that have spent decades building their brands are ranking lower, companies with names like Mercedes Benz, BMW, Louis Vuitton, and Cartier. So how does Interbrand determine who ranks where on their Best Global Brands List?

3 key aspects are evaluated before deciding on a particular brand’s worth: the role of influence that the brand plays on the consumer market, the financial performance of the company, and the ability that the brand has to command the highest price for their products or services while locking down company earnings. Of course, some of these determinations are somewhat subjective, but Interbrand’s rating system is the only one of its kind to be approved and certified by the International Organization for Standardization, giving Apple’s #1 ranking an extreme amount of worldwide credibility.