For the first time in 13 years, Coca-Cola was unseated as the world's most valuable brand according to Interbrand's listing. This year, Coca-Cola slipped to the number three slot with a valuation on the ranking chart of $79 Billion (which was actually an increase of 2% from last year). Despite this massive brand valuation, Coca-Cola still lagged far behind the valuation of Google in the number two slot at $$93.2 Billion and Apple in the number one spot at $98.3 Billion.
Five of the top ten brands are now technology companies, and 80% of the top five are tech companies. Fourth place went to IBM and fifth place went to Microsoft. As an interesting sidenote, Samsung and Intel swapped places on the list from last year. Intel was in 8th place, but is now in 9th, while Samsung was in 9th, but is now in 8th.
For the sake of clarity, Interbrand is a corporate identity and brand consulting company owned by the Omnicom Group. It has been compiling a Best Global Brands report since 2000. Keep in mind that their report is designed to list the best brands, and they use several different factors to determine this beyond just market cap valuations. For more info, check out the report here: Interbrand - Best Global Brands 2013
Source: NYTimes
