Just two names from the world of insurance were able to crack the top 100 in a newly released collaboration of the 500 most valuable brands globally.
The two insurance names to make it to the upper circle of this elite group were China’s Ping An Insurance and Germany’s
Allianz. Ping An took 79
th place overall with a brand value of $16.3 billion, representing a 29% jump over the previous year; whereas Allianz, the previous year’s leading insurance brand, actually slipped back by 7% to a brand value of $15.1 billion.
The list is compiled annually by value and strategy consultancy Brand Finance. Brands are first evaluated to determine their power/strength (based on factors such as marketing investment, familiarity, loyalty, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation).
Brand strength is used to determine what proportion of a business’s revenue is contributed by the brand, which is projected into perpetuity to determine the brand’s value. The results of this analysis are ranked, with the world’s 500 most valuable brands featured in the Brand Finance Global 500, which you can see in full
here.
Of particular note is that the ranking presents a new overall number one, with Google taking the crown from Apple thanks to a 24% surge in value during 2016, from $88.1 billion to $109.4 billion to take the title for the first time since 2011. By contrast, Apple saw its value slip by 27% from $145.9 billion to $107.1 billion. Apple was judged to have “over exploited the goodwill of its customers” and the report noted that it “failed to generate significant revenue from newer products such as the Apple Watch.” Meanwhile, Google “remains largely unchallenged in its core search business.”
The rest of the top 10 was completed by Amazon, AT&T, Microsoft, Samsung, Verizon, Walmart, Facebook and Chinese bank ICBC, respectively.
Focusing again on insurance, there was a notably strong performance from professional services provider PwC, which also has a strong insurance arm. Though not officially classified as an insurance company, it did finish ahead of all official insurance providers at 66
th place in the list and was also ranked in the top 10 of the world’s most powerful brands with a 90.9% score, finishing eighth in that particular ranking which was topped by Lego.
Other notable insurance brands on list included US health insurance giant Anthem in position 127,
AXA at 143, Aetna at 165,
Zurich at 206, another health insurance superpower Humana at 211,
MetLife at 231 and Allstate at 246 all cracking the top 250. Also notable was the performance of
Chubb, which entered the top 500 at number 284, having previously been outside the list.
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