Italian supercar manufacturer, Ferrari, has claimed the title of the world’s strongest brand in the world as stated in the 2019 Brand Finance Global Report.
The report featured a total of 500 companies around the world with no African brand appearing this year.
Ferrari’s Brand Strength Index (BSI) score increased three points from 91.5 to 94.8 out of 100 over the past year, overtaking the likes of McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Lego, and Disney.
The iconic auto brand last held the title of the world’s strongest in 2014.
Brand Finance determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance.
According to these criteria, Ferrari is the strongest of only 14 brands in the Brand Finance Global 500 2019 ranking of the world’s most valuable brands to be awarded the highest AAA+ rating.
As Ferrari’s brand strength flourished this year, its brand value also improved, racing ahead 27 percent to US$8.3 billion.
The Big Four professional services firms also achieved noteworthy performance in terms of brand strength this year.
Deloitte leads the charge as the strongest and most valuable of the accounting and audit giants with a BSI score of 91.2 (brand value US$29.6 billion), pulling ahead of last year’s sector leader, PwC, this year with a BSI score of 89.8 (US$24.9 billion).
EY also continues to attain elite AAA+ status, with a BSI of 89.7 (US$23.2 billion) having achieved fast growth in both brand strength and brand value in recent years since 2015.
Though the Big Four hold steady overall among commercial services brands with regards to brand strength, KPMG trails behind with a BSI of 83.2, down 4 percent from last year. The KPMG brand has been impacted by controversies in 2018, including the widely covered audit of now-defunct UK construction firm Carillion.
According to Brand Finance Global, the success of the Big Four, however, may be dampened by the winds of change already swaying these firms to take bolder steps towards modifying their traditional consulting models. Not only have they entered and expanded into new realms of professional services throughout the world, but there is also increased talk of breakups into smaller fractions that would help hedge their bets for better service provision in the coming years.
Here is the list of the top 10 strongest brands 2019:
- Ferrari
- SBERBANK
- Deloitte
- MacDonald’s
- Intel
- Rolex
- Neutrogena
- Coca-Cola
- PwC
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