How much does a company’s brand affect its bottom line? It might be quite a bit more than you think, as the latest rankings by the UK-based valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance goes to show.
As Brand Finance explains, a brand’s strength is assessed by factors such as marketing investment, familiarity, preference, which helps the firm determine what proportion of a business’s revenue is contributed by its brand. Every year, they compile the top 50 brands for their Brand Finance Japan 50 league table.
It should come as no surprise that Toyota took the top spot, with a brand valued at $46.3 billion, helped in no small part by a 32% percent increase in reported revenue. Other well known car companies were in the top ranks as well: Nissan came in third, while Honda took the fourth spot. One particularly fast mover was Subaru, which jumped up 15 spots to 16th place. As Brand Finance points out, Subaru has undergone a significant rebranding process over the past year. It swapped out its official 60-year-old name, Fuji Heavy Industries, for the moniker of Subaru Corporation. It also broke the 1 million sales mark for the first time in the company’s history.
In the technology and telecommunications space, the tech giant NTT Group is in at second place, and its brand value is estimated at $40.5 billion. SoftBank and au each held their place at fifth and sixth place, respectively. Brand Finance cited SoftBank’s aggressive moves – purchasing the chipmaker ARM, and extending its international reach – in the previous year as helping to boost the company’s brand power.
Personally, we were happy to see that good old Nintendo, which has been struggling to find a smash hit product since the Wii, had leaped 16 spaces to 30th place. The brand value for Mario and crew has eaten quite a mushroom, growing 73% to 4.7 billion. Showing up in the closing ceremonies for the 2016 Olympics probably didn’t hurt the company’s brand recognition, either.
You can see the full table below, or on their site here.
For more information about Brand Finance, visit brandfinance.com.
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