We think you’d better sit down for this one, as it may come as something of a surprise. According to the annual Brandz global power list, which released its 2015 edition today, Apple is now the world’s most powerful brand, usurping Google from the throne following a 67% increase in estimated value to £161billion.
OK, so you don’t have to be a top PR agency to know that this isn’t really all that shocking. The company Steve Jobs founded has so far had a monumental year, unveiling the world-beating iPhone 6 along with its eyebrow-raisingly popular Apple Watch, bolstering its reputation for innovation and boosting sales no end. As such its position at the top of the brand pile, in an era wherein tech companies are fast becoming the most important forces on the planet, could have been predicted.
The list overall is incredibly telling of the global economy. Chinese firms, again largely technologically-focused, are making waves, meanwhile Tesco has fallen out of the Top 100 completely. Vodafone remains Britain’s most valuable company, and the Top 10 continues to be dominated by U.S. corporations. Away from the big hitters and international household names, though, how can you judge the value of your own brand?
Well, clearly there’s an obvious answer- profitability. But there’s far more to our own definition of brand value than simple bank balances alone (not that we would ever advocate disregarding The Books). A top-rated content marketing experts, social media whiz kids (granted, some of us aren’t necessarily kids anymore) and public relations sharpshooters, everyone here at Smoking Gun recognises the importance- and value- in getting the public talking about products, brands and companies. After all, it’s what our job is all about.
The more positive sentiment there is surrounding your brand now, the greater the potential for sales growth in the future, and the more chance there is of increasing the fiscal worth behind your business. It’s a relatively straight forward idea to get the little grey cells around; the more people there are discussing something, the more other people get to know about that thing, and the more chance there is of at least some of those folks buying into that thing.
There’s more to the value of a brand, in our opinion, than all this too. Our job is also about securing, retaining and increasing the good reputation of our clients. With a strong, well respected name any brand- whether that’s a small enterprise or mid-sized challenger- can be seen as having more ‘theoretical’ value. Sales may not necessarily be seeing sharp upwards trajectory, but customer loyalty might be stronger than with any competitor, meaning given the opportunity to grow (perhaps via an injection of cash with which to increase staff numbers, or expanding production operations to allow for more stock to be made or bought) that’s exactly what you will do, because of the sheer level of recommendations from satisfied customers that already exist.
Put simply, then, although there’s only one overall way to judge the value of your brand, there are several factors that come together to give that final metric, and- without blowing our own trumpet too loudly- we can help you analyse, assess and calculate exactly how well you’re doing on all those levels. Why not get in touch and find out the ways in which our ingenious masterminds can assist.