Samsung’s brand value ranks No. 6 in the world

Samsung’s brand value ranks No. 6 in the world. October. 05, 2018 07:46. by Sung-Gyu Kim sunggyu@donga.com.
Korean brands including Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have been included in the world’s top 100 brands this year. Samsung Electronics, in particular, had the highest ranking for brands outside of the U.S., ranking as sixth worldwide.

U.S. brand consulting group Interbrand announced the 2018 Best Global Brands Wednesday (local time). The value of the world’s top 100 brands equaled to 2.0153 trillion U.S. dollars (some 2,272.25 trillion won), growing 7.7 percent from last year. The top 10 brands were Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Coca Cola, Samsung Electronics, Toyota, Mercedes Benz, Facebook and Mc Donald. Apple and Googled remained first and second place for the sixth consecutive year. Apple’s brand value amounted to 214.48 billion dollars, increasing 16 percent year-on-year, while Google grew 10 percent to reach 155.56 billion dollars in the same period.

Among Korean brands, Samsung Electronics was valued at 59.89 billion dollars, an increase of 6 percent from last year, though its rank remains the same. Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors were ranked 36th (13.535 billion dollars) and 71st (6.925 billion dollars), respectively, one rank down from last year. The value of the three Korean brands combined amounted to 80.35 billion dollars, which is the fifth largest after the U.S., Germany, Japan and France. The value of these brands grew 5.5 percent from last year.

“We achieved the highest brand value ever, recognized for our continued innovation in smartphones and home appliance, growth potential in future technologies such as 5G telecom and Artificial Intelligence and unwavering leadership in semiconductors,” said Samsung Electronics.

“We believe we were acknowledged for our continued investment in future vehicles and efforts to enhance our brand image,” said the Hyundai and Kia automotive group. "Thanks to our hydro electric vehicle Nexo and the high-performance brand N, we have built the foundation to position ourselves as a differentiated brand."

The rankings were determined based on financial prediction, the ability to create revenue of the brand or services; the calculation of brand and role indices, the intangible ratio of profit created by the brand; and brand strength, which measures specific risk of the brand.