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The value of the world’s most valuable brands grew to USD 12 trillion

January 12, 2023

By Annie Brown, Artur Bryzghalov (both Brand Finance) and Lorena Rivera León and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent (WIPO)

A look back at 2022, ahead of the 2023 Global 500 Brand Value Ranking launch.

Innovation is vital for branding, and branding is essential to innovation (see WIPO World IP Report on brands).

Following this conviction, the innovation measurement framework of the Global Innovation Index (GII) has always paid tribute to the important role of brands. Contrary to many innovation reports or innovation data collections, the GII has always treated indicators such as the number of trademarks filed or the value of brands on par with other core innovation indicators.

Since, 2020, WIPO and Brand Finance have collaborated to incorporate the global value of brands as an indicator in the GII. Going beyond the Brand Finance Global 500 Ranking of the most valuable brands in the world, we leverage Brand Finance’s wider database to analyst the top 5,000 global brands to maximize country coverage.

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The highlights:

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  • The value of the top 5000 global brands increased from 11 trillion USD in 2020 to over 12 trillion USD in 2022 (by 14 percent). This increase follows a slight dip in 2021 (by 1 percent) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • When looking at the share of countries of the total 2022 top 5000 brand value, the United States of America (U.S.) led by far in absolute brand value, equaling over 5 trillion USD in 2022. This value represented close to 3 times more than the value of all brands from China in 2022 (1.9 trillion USD in 2022) and about 7 times more than Japan, 8 times more than Germany and 10 times more than the UK, which follow (first table).
  • Unsurprisingly, in 2022, the top brands in the US were Apple (tech), Amazon (retail) and Google (media).
  • Interestingly, thanks to the growing performance of their rapidly ascending multinationals or the prominence of their companies in fields tied to natural resources such as gas, or mining, China and India rank well on the top 20 list.

If one assesses the economy’s aggregate top brand value as a share of the economy’s gross domestic product, as the GII does to equalize countries of different economic statures, the results change – see second table.

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Relative to gross domestic product (GDP), Hong Kong (China) with 26.4 percent, the United States of America (23 percent) and Switzerland (21.6 percent) lead, followed by Sweden, the Republic of Korea, France, the UK, Japan and Malaysia. At the top, the differences across countries are not as flagrant as when one looks at the absolute brand value, where the US leads strongly. Smaller countries also make it into the mix. Regarding middle-income countries, Malaysia now makes it to the top 10 of the list, and China remains in the top 20 (18th rank).

Which will be the most valuable brands in the world in 2023? Will the global brand value go up in 2022 relative to 2021 or decline?

Stay tuned for the next brand value data release at the Brand Finance Global 500 Launch 2023 at Davos on January 18, 2023.

Background

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The Global Innovation Index includes a full sub-pillar of indicators on intangible assets. Two data points – one on the intensity of intangible assets at the firm level (Brand Finance GIFTTM Index) and one on the global value of brands (Brand Finance Global 500), are obtained thanks to the collaboration between Brand Finance and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Brand Finance is an independent brand valuation consultancy with offices in over 20 countries. Brand Finance bridges the gap between marketing and finance by quantifying the financial value of brands. Brand Finance values 5,000 of the world’s most prominent corporate brands annually.

You can check individual GII country profiles, for example, France, or India.

For more information, visit the GII webpage and Global 500 2022.