Amazon, tops list of USA’s most valuable brands; Apple, Walmart in top five
Amazon is back on top.
The online giant retook the number spot from Apple on brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance’s annual ranking of the 500 most valuable U.S. brands. Amazon claimed the top spot even as its brand value declined 15% this year to $299.3 billion from $350.3 billion last year. Despite its fall in value this year, Amazon’s brand value is still up 36% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brand value is understood as the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market, according to Brand Finance. The company calculates brand value using the “royalty relief” methodology which determines the value a company would be willing to pay to license its brand as if it did not own it. This approach involves estimating the future revenue attributable to a brand and calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for the use of the brand.
“Our research has found that Amazon’s brand value comes from its strong position in both B2C and B2B sectors of the economy, as it is a key global market leader in the massive markets of both online retail and online cloud computing services. David Haigh, chairman & CEO, Brand Finance. “It is continuing to expand into new verticals such as bricks and mortar retailing, acquisition of film studios, and payment processing.”
Apple, at No. 2, had a brand value of $297.5 billion, down 16% from $355.1 billion last year. Rounding out the top five: Google (brand value $281.382 billion). Microsoft ($191.574 billion and Walmart ($113.781 billion.
Other retailers in the top 10 were The Home Depot, No. 8 (brand value $61.053 billion) and Starbucks, No. 10 ($53.432 billion).
Fastest-growing brand
New entrant FanDuel is the fastest-growing brand in the ranking, more than tripling in brand value to $3.4 billion. The company is leading the expansion of the U.S. online gambling market, which has flourished since 2018 when restrictive gambling restrictions were repealed in some states.
The full ranking, additional insights, charts, more information about the methodology, and definitions of key terms are available in the Brand Finance US 500 2023 ranking at brandirectory.com/usa.