Apple Second to Ferrari in World’s Most Powerful Brand Study

Apple has topped Samsung as the world’s most valuable brand – although Ferrari ranked as the world’s most powerful brand – Brand Finance announced on Monday.

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After a year of ups and downs, with the company’s enterprise value skyrocketing from $350 billion to $600 billion, then falling to $400 billion – all this within the 12 months of 2012 – “it was only its sheer size that helped” Apple maintain its lead position over Samsung, its biggest rival, according to the report.

Measuring the company’s brand value, Brand Finance found that Apple’s brand value is now $87 billion, up from $70 billion. Yet, its brand rating weakened from AAA+ to AAA, with its South Korean rival it catching up, driven by the sales of its high-end Samsung Galaxy S3 – the most pre-ordered smartphone of all time, the Brand Finance press release notes.

Commenting on the findings, Brand Finance CEO David Haigh said: “Brand is one of many intangible assets which drive profitable growth. Technology, contractual, human capital and customer intangibles as well as general goodwill all drive overall corporate value. With revenues in the tens of billions, Apple and Samsung are slugging it out for global brand supremacy and are vying with each other to create strong ‘customer love’ for their brands. However, there are other brands in the Global 500 that though they may never challenge the brand value giants, are nonetheless extremely powerful and well-loved.”

While in the tech world Apple maintains its lead, it can’t take the crown of the world’s most powerful brand: Ferrari. As Brand Finance points out, a key driver of brand value is revenue, an area where Ferrari can’t compete with multi-national brands. Yet, when considering key financial metrics (like net margins, average revenue per customer, marketing and advertising spend, brand affection and loyalty), it turned out the Italian manufacturer outperformed all brands worldwide.

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