Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook VISA and A&T trail Google as the most valuable brands among U.S. consumers

GLOBAL–Google has claimed the title of “most valuable U.S. brand” in the 2018 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable U.S. Brands report, compiled by WPP and Millward Brown.

This is the first year BrandZ has ranked U.S. brands; however, many of these brands have been included as part of the global top 100 most valuable brands, which was released this summer and gives insight into how some of these companies have fared over time.

Google’s current brand value checks in at $286 billion, while Apple is close behind at $279 billion. According to the report, the Google/Apple divergence is likely due to the vast amount of time their customers spend with them. The two brands live on handsets, PCs and all manner of digital devices, performing hundreds of tasks daily for people across the globe.

Trailing Google and Apple, the other top companies on the Top 100 Most Valuable U.S. Brands report include Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Visa, AT&T, McDonald’s, IBM and Marlboro.

The total brand value of the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable U.S. Brands 2018 is $3.2 trillion. The top 10 alone accounts for $1.6 trillion, or half of the total value.

Although Google is the most valuable brand in the U.S., Amazon has been the fastest grower in brand value since 2006. It also ranks as the second-highest among American brands in brand experience (FedEx is first), showing how important a customer’s interaction with brand is in building a relationship.

“We are excited to be bringing the BrandZ study to the U.S.. America today is home to some of the world’s strongest and most universally recognized brands. These include old favorites, like Disney and Coca-Cola, and rapidly emerging powerhouses, like Amazon and Facebook,” says David Roth, chief executive officer, The Store WPP, EMEA & Asia, and chairman, BAV Group. “The U.S. economy has been forecast to grow 2.1 percent in 2018. While this is decidedly sluggish, America remains a vibrant hotbed of innovation and creativity. We see this in the top five most valuable brands–Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook–a group with such global reach and influence that we’ve dubbed them the Fearsome Five.”

Highlights and key findings from this year’s BrandZ Top 100 U.S. Brands study include: