Google passes Apple
When it comes to the ranking of all brands, Google regained the No. 1 spot from Apple. Google's brand value rose 32 percent to $229.2 billion.
Apple slipped to No. 2 because as its brand value dropped 8 percent to 228.5 billion.
“Google was in an investment phase this time last year and those investments are paying off, particularly in the cloud by making major advances against Amazon and Microsoft,” Walshe said.
Apple has remained “massively differentiated” as a brand, but it did not hit a home run this year, accounting for why its brand value slipped, Walshe said. “Sure, Apple has done great things with its iPhone 6 launch and other products, but it did not come up with any major innovations recently from the perspective of customers.”
The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands was developed by Millward Brown. The study combines measures of brand equity based on interviews with more than 2 million consumers globally using data from Bloomberg and Kantar Worldpanel.