The λόγος of logos

By By B.U. and P.K.

BRANDS have a logic and meaning of their own. But how much are they worth? Three companies that measure brand value have healthy disagreements. There is a consensus that three technology companies—Google, Apple and Microsoft—belong among the top five. Opinions diverge on Big Blue. And there are significant differences about big consumer brands. Millward Brown and Interbrand think Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are top-ten brands; Brand Finance doesn’t. Even when they roughly agree on rankings they disagree on valuations. Millward Brown, which compiles the BrandZ list, tends to assign the highest dollar values; Brand Finance is more conservative.

A reason for the variance is methodology. There are many different ways to measure a brand’s size (whether to look at revenue or profit, for example). And it is tricky to calculate how much a brand contributes to financial performance. Millward Brown talks to 2m consumers to gauge the desire and loyalty a brand inspires. Interbrand considers internal factors, like how committed a company is to its brand. Brand Finance uses royalty rates for the licensing out of similar brands. (See our story here.)

As for the value of the rating companies' brands themselves, The Economist has performed its own unscientific study. We conclude that Interbrand's brand value is highest (based on 515,000 Google search results), followed by Brand Finance (at 332,000) and Millward Brown (with 212,000). The BrandZ list has a stronger brand than the consulting firm that produces it, with 1.7m results. It would be interesting to see how the three firms rank their own brands using their respective methodologies.