The document analyzes brand valuation league tables from various organizations in 2020, noting significant discrepancies in estimated brand values due to differing methodologies. Only 32 out of 186 brands featured on all four lists, and the aggregated value of top brands varied widely, reflecting differing revenue estimations and brand significance opinions. Consensus among providers regarding changes in brand valuations from 2019 was rare, occurring only 20% of the time for the brands examined.

1. BRAND VALUATION:
COMPARISON OF THE 2020 LEAGUE TABLES
Published by
Brand Finance, Forbes, Interbrand and BrandZ/Millward Brown
Jonathan Knowles
20 October 2020
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2. Brand Value League Tables
Brand value league tables have been around for 20 years:
• Interbrand (started in 1999; publishes in October; covers the top 100 brands; in US$)
• Millward Brown/BrandZ (2006; June; top 100 brands; US$)
• Brand Finance (2007; Jan/Feb; top 500 brands – but only top 100 publicly shown; US$)
• Forbes (2012; May; top 100 brands; US$)
• Eurobrand (2011-2017; September; top 100 parent companies; values in EUR)
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3. Brand Valuation: T2 Commentary
• All providers claim to report the “economic use” value of the brand
• “Economic use” represents the financial benefit that the company derives from the brand
• There are only two major methodologies for calculating “economic use” value:
• The “earnings split” approach estimates the brand-specific earnings of the business and calculates their net present
value (this is the approach used by Interbrand and BrandZ/Millward Brown; Forbes uses a variant of this)
• The “relief from royalty” approach establishes a notional licensing fee that a company would have to pay for the use
of its brand and calculates the NPV of the royalty payments (this is the approach used by Brand Finance)
• Both approaches are conceptually sound and are compliant with the ISO 10668 standard (“Brand
Valuation - Requirements for Monetary Brand Valuation”)
• The approaches should yield similar estimates of brand value but in practice we observe huge
variations between the estimates of brand value by the different providers due to:
• Estimation of the total revenues attributable to each brand (this data is not easy to acquire for companies with
multiple brands and for privately-held companies)
• Differences of opinion about the significance of the role that brands play in creating consumer preference ni
industries such as automobiles, financial services and telecoms
• Differences of opinion about the strength of individual brands
• The discount rate used to calculate the NPV of the brand earnings/royalty payments
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4. The four lists contain a total of 186 brands
Only 6 brands appear in the top 30 of each list
Only 32 are common across all four top 100 lists
There is only 20%consensus about whether a
given brand increased or decreased in value
versus 2019 (based on the 30 brands that
appeared on all four lists in both 2019 and 2020)
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5. 186 Brands
ON ALL FOUR LISTS:
Accenture
Amazon
American Express
Apple
BMW
Cisco
Citi
Coca-Cola
Disney
Facebook
FedEx
Google
Gucci
HSBC
Huawei
IBM
4
32
IKEA
Intel
J P Morgan
MasterCard
McDonald's
Mercedes-Benz
Microsoft
Netflix
Nike
Pepsi
Samsung
Siemens
Starbucks
Toyota
UPS
VISA
ON THREE LISTS:
Adidas
Adobe
Allianz
AT&T
Bank of America
Budweiser
Chanel
Chase
Colgate
Costco
Dell Technologies
Ford
GE
Gillette
Hermes
Honda
Hyundai
Instagram
36
KFC
L'Oreal
Louis Vuitton
Lowe's
Marlboro
Nestle
Oracle
Pampers
PayPal
Porsche
SAP
The Home Depot
Verizon
VW
Walmart
Wells Fargo
YouTube
Zara

6. 186 Brands
ON TWO LISTS:
Agricultural Bank of China
AIA Insurance
Alibaba
Audi
AXA
Bank of China
Cartier
Caterpillar
China Construction Bank
China Mobile
Corona
CVS
Danone
Deloitte
Deutsche Telekom
DHL
eBay
EY
Goldman Sachs
H&M
Heineken
Hennessy
HP
5
46
ICBC
John Deere
Lancome
LEGO
LinkedIn
Moutai
Nescafe
Nintendo
Nissan
NTT Group
Orange
Ping An
PwC
Salesforce
Santander
Shell
Sony
Spectrum
Tencent
Uber
UnitedHealth
Vodafone
Xfinity
ON ONLY ONE LIST:
3M
Aldi
Baidu
BCA
Boeing
Bosch
BP
Burberry
Burger King
Canon
Chevrolet
Chevron
China Life Insurance
China Merchants Bank
China State Construction
China Telecom
Commonwealth Bank
DiDi
Dior
ESPN
Evergrande Real Estate
Ferrari
Fox
Frito-Lay
72
Haier
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
HFDC Bank
Jack Daniels
JD.com
Johnnie Walker
Johnson & Johnson
Kellogg's
Kia
Land Rover
Lexus
LIC
Meituan
MINI
Mitsubishi
Mitsui
Morgan Stanley
Movistar
Panasonic
PetroChina
Philips
Prada
RBC
Red Bull
Rolex
Saudi Aramco
Sinopec
SK Group
Spotify
State Grid
Subway
Sumitomo
T-Mobile
Taobao
Tata
TD
Tesla
Tiffany & Co.
TikTok
Tmall
Total
UBS
Uniqlo
WeChat
Wuliangye
Xbox
Xiaomi
Zoom

7. Comparison of the Top 30 Brands on Each List
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INTERBRAND OCT 2020 BV $MM MILLWARD BROWN JUN 2020 BV $MM FORBES MAY 2020 BV $MM BRAND FINANCE FEB 2020 BV $MM
1 Apple 322,999 Amazon 415,855 Apple 241,200 Amazon 220,791
2 Amazon 200,667 Apple 352,206 Google 207,500 Google 159,722
3 Microsoft 166,001 Microsoft 326,544 Microsoft 162,900 Apple 140,524
4 Google 165,444 Google 323,601 Amazon 135,400 Microsoft 117,072
5 Samsung 62,289 VISA 186,809 Facebook 70,300 Samsung 94,494
6 Coca-Cola 56,894 Alibaba 152,525 Coca-Cola 64,400 ICBC 80,791
7 Toyota 51,595 Tencent 150,978 Disney 61,300 Facebook 79,804
8 Mercedes-Benz 49,268 Facebook 147,190 Samsung 50,400 Walmart 77,520
9 McDonald's 42,816 McDonald's 129,321 Louis Vuitton 47,200 Ping An 69,041
10 Disney 40,773 MasterCard 108,129 McDonald's 46,100 Huawei 65,084
11 BMW 39,756 AT&T 105,833 Toyota 41,500 Mercedes-Benz 65,041
12 Intel 36,891 Verizon 94,662 Intel 39,500 Verizon 63,692
13 Facebook 35,178 Coca-Cola 84,022 Nike 39,100 China Construction Bank 62,602
14 IBM 34,885 IBM 83,667 AT&T 37,300 AT&T 59,103
15 Nike 34,388 Marlboro 58,247 Cisco 36,000 Toyota 58,076
16 Cisco 34,119 SAP 57,585 Oracle 35,700 State Grid 56,965
17 Louis Vuitton 31,720 The Home Depot 57,585 Verizon 32,300 Disney 56,123
18 SAP 28,011 Moutai 53,755 VISA 31,800 Agricultural Bank of China 54,658
19 Instagram 26,060 Louis Vuitton 51,777 Walmart 29,500 WeChat 54,146
20 Honda 21,694 UPS 50,748 GE 29,500 Bank of China 50,630
21 Chanel 21,203 Nike 49,962 Budweiser 28,900 The Home Depot 50,508
22 J P Morgan 20,220 Disney 48,802 SAP 28,600 China Mobile 49,023
23 American Express 19,458 PayPal 48,453 Mercedes-Benz 28,500 Shell 47,529
24 UPS 19,161 Starbucks 47,753 IBM 28,200 Saudi Aramco 46,768
25 IKEA 18,870 Xfinity 46,973 Marlboro 26,800 VW 44,897
26 Pepsi 18,603 Netflix 45,889 Netflix 26,700 YouTube 44,476
27 Adobe 18,206 Walmart 45,783 BMW 25,900 Tencent 44,091
28 Hermes 17,961 Spectrum 42,917 American Express 25,100 Starbucks 41,043
29 GE 17,961 Instagram 41,501 Honda 24,500 Wells Fargo 40,881
30 YouTube 17,328 Accenture 41,437 L'Oreal 22,800 BMW 40,483
Only 6 brands (highlighted) are common to all four lists; while a further 13 brands (shown in bold) are common to three of the lists. Brands on all the other 3 lists save for this one:
AT&T; Verizon; Walmart BMW; Mercedes-Benz; Samsung; Toyota Coca-Cola; IBM; Louis Vuitton; McDonald's; Nike; SAP
# brands unique to this list: 6 7 3 13
Value of 6 common brands: 931,062 1,614,198 878,600 774,036
Value of top 30 brands: 1,670,419 3,450,509 1,704,900 2,135,578
Value of top 100 brands: 3,947,544 2,542,000 4,988,811 2,321,938

8. Divergent Estimates of Brand Value
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BRAND IB BV 2020 MB BV 20 Forbes BV 20 BF BV 20 AVERAGE BV MAX:MIN RATIO
Apple 322,999 352,206 241,200 140,524 264,232 2.51
Amazon 200,667 415,855 135,400 220,791 243,178 3.07
Google 165,444 323,601 207,500 159,722 214,067 2.03
Microsoft 166,001 326,544 162,900 117,072 193,129 2.79
Facebook 35,178 147,190 70,300 79,804 83,118 4.18
VISA 12,397 186,809 31,800 26,856 64,466 15.07
McDonald's 42,816 129,321 46,100 37,449 63,922 3.45
Coca-Cola 56,894 84,022 64,400 37,935 60,813 2.21
Samsung 62,289 32,580 50,400 94,494 59,941 2.90
Disney 40,773 48,802 61,300 56,123 51,750 1.50
IBM 34,885 83,667 28,200 33,358 45,028 2.97
Toyota 51,595 28,388 41,500 58,076 44,890 2.05
Mercedes-Benz 49,268 21,349 28,500 65,041 41,040 3.05
Nike 34,388 49,962 39,100 34,792 39,561 1.45
MasterCard 11,055 108,129 17,300 19,838 39,081 9.78
Intel 36,891 37,257 39,500 27,507 35,289 1.44
BMW 39,756 20,517 25,900 40,483 31,664 1.97
Cisco 34,119 26,254 36,000 23,322 29,924 1.54
Starbucks 11,246 47,753 17,800 41,043 29,461 4.25
UPS 19,161 50,748 13,300 29,482 28,173 3.82
Huawei 6,301 29,412 8,500 65,084 27,324 10.33
Netflix 12,665 45,889 26,700 22,945 27,050 3.62
American Express 19,458 29,333 25,100 29,160 25,763 1.51
Accenture 16,552 41,437 19,100 25,294 25,596 2.50
Gucci 15,675 27,238 22,600 17,630 20,786 1.74
J P Morgan 20,220 17,649 13,700 22,826 18,599 1.67
Citi 11,936 15,666 11,800 33,131 18,133 2.81
IKEA 18,870 18,017 15,800 19,499 18,047 1.23
Pepsi 18,603 13,319 18,200 18,922 17,261 1.42
HSBC 10,118 18,747 14,400 19,463 15,682 1.92
Siemens 10,512 13,981 12,700 20,057 14,313 1.91
FedEx 7,367 15,461 7,900 22,990 13,430 3.12
The 32 brands common to
all four Top 100 lists for
2020 are shown.
The highest value for each
brand is shaded in grey.
The final column shows the
ratio between the highest
and lowest estimate for the
same brand in 2020.
Highlighted in yellow are
the five brand where the
high/low estimates varied
by a factor of more than 4x
- VISA; Huawei; Mastercard;
Starbucks; and Facebook

9. Divergent Opinions re YoY Change in Value
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% ch 2020/2019 % ch 2020/2019 % ch 2020/2019 % ch 2020/2019 30 o/w 6Y 24N
BRAND BF 20 v 19 Forbes MB IB CONSENSUS?
Amazon 18% 40% 32% 60% YES
BMW 0% -13% -12% -4% YES
Facebook -4% -21% -7% -12% YES
MasterCard 8% 24% 18% 17% YES
Netflix 8% 72% 34% 41% YES
Nike 7% 6% 5% 6% YES
Accenture -4% 15% 6% 2% NO
American Express 6% -3% -16% -10% NO
Apple -9% 17% 14% 38% NO
Cisco 7% 4% -9% -4% NO
Citi -9% 4% -17% -6% NO
Coca-Cola 5% 9% 4% -10% NO
Disney 23% 17% -14% -8% NO
FedEx -5% -4% -23% 5% NO
Google 12% 24% 5% -1% NO
HSBC -4% 13% -19% -14% NO
Huawei 5% 6% 9% -9% NO
IBM 2% -10% -3% -14% NO
IKEA -9% 3% -5% 3% NO
Intel -6% 2% 17% -8% NO
J P Morgan 15% 10% -11% 6% NO
McDonald's 19% 5% -1% -6% NO
Mercedes-Benz 8% -14% -9% -3% NO
Microsoft -2% 30% 30% 53% NO
Samsung 4% -5% 7% 2% NO
Siemens -7% -8% -9% 2% NO
Starbucks 5% 5% 4% -5% NO
Toyota 11% -7% -3% -8% NO
UPS 1% 6% -8% 6% NO
VISA -3% 18% 5% 15% NO
This chart compares the
year-on-year change in
brand value for the 30
brands on all four Top 100
lists in both 2020 & 2019.
Green highlights indicate
brands that increased in
value vs. 2019 – orange
indicates a decline in value.
The final column shows
whether there was a
consensus among the four
providers are to whether a
given brand increased or
decreased in value.
There was consensus only
20% of the time (for 6 of
the 30 brands).

10. Summary Observations
• There are a total of 186 brands across the four top 100 lists
• Only 32 brands are common to all four top 100 lists while 72 brands are unique to a single list
• The aggregate value of the top 100 brands ranges from $4.99 trillion (Millward Brown’s list) to
$2.33 trillion (Interbrand’s list) – a difference of 114%
• Only 6 brands are common to all four top 30 lists - Amazon, Apple, Disney, Facebook, Google and
Microsoft
• The aggregate value of the top 30 brands on each list varies between $3.45 trillion (Millward
Brown) and $1.67 trillion (Interbrand) – a difference of 107%
• The difference between the minimum and maximum value estimated for the same brand typically
varies by a factor of 2x – for the VISA brand, the high/low estimates differ by 15.1x
• For the 30 brands that appeared on all four lists in both 2019 and 2020, the providers are only
unanimous about whether the brand had increased or decreased in value in 6 cases (Amazon,
BMW, Facebook, Mastercard, Netflix and Nike). For the other 24 brands, there was disagreement
about the sign change
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