Apple Named World's Most Valuable Brand for Third Year in a Row

Millward Brown today released its annual BrandZ study of global brands(via AllThingsD), which found Apple to be the world's most valuable brand for the third straight year. 

Although Apple topped the list once again, its brand value only increased 1% to $185 billion, which is not as impressive as the 19% increase (from $153 billion in 2011 to $183 billion in 2012) it received last year. Apple rival Google jumped back up to the second spot with a brand value of $137 billion (a 5% increase) and Samsung clocked in a 51% increase and a $21.4 billion brand value at the 30th spot. 


Overall, Millward Brown said that the technology sector was "flat," declining after 5 years of growth:

Without the surge in Apple and Facebook brand value that helped drive category growth, Technology declined 1 percent in the BrandZ™ 2013 ranking, after five years averaging 8 percent annual category growth.

Among other top brands, IBM fell down to the third spot with a brand value of $112 billion while Microsoft dropped 9% to $69.8 billion and Facebook fell 36% to $21 billion. Yahoo, which fell out of the top 100 years ago, returned to the 92nd spot with a brand value of $9.8 billion. 

While "brand value" studies can be difficult to compare, because of the use of differing methodologies used by those who gather the data can lead to much different results, they can be a good look at marketing and branding trends.