Tech firms dominate the top-10 rankings, and two Chinese lenders are rated as the two most valuable bank brands in the world.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, aka ICBC, which covers services including wealth management, is only one of two financial firms to make it into the top-10 ranking of businesses deemed to have the most valuable brands in the world, a survey shows. Separately, luxury carmaker Ferrari is ranked top for the strongest brand.

An annual report prepared by Brand Finance puts ICBC in eighth spot for the most valuable brand, with a value of $79.823 billion, a gain of 34.9 per cent in 2018 from the previous year. Amazon ranks top, at $187.9 billion, up by 24.6 per cent, followed by Apple; Google; Microsoft; Samsung; AT&T; Facebook; ICBC, Verizon and China Construction Bank. 

A breakdown of the data shows that tech firms make up 23.7 per cent of all brand value ($1.631 trillion), followed by banks, at 13.6 per cent ($934.2 billion).

The high ratings for two Chinese banks – ICBC is the world’s largest lender by assets – underscores both the rapid ascent of the country’s economy and some worries linked to rising trade protectionism versus the US, and recent signs of economic slowdown. 

“Chinese brands are braced for the trade wars ahead and starting the year confidently, seeing notable rises in brand value across a variety of sectors: tech, banking, insurance, and real estate. It now rests upon the guardians of these Chinese brands to navigate the choppy waters of US tariffs and negotiate their way through the escalating tensions in the years to come,” David Haigh, chief executive of Brand Finance, said. 

As for other major financial groups, Citi comes in at 36th for the most valuable brand – down slightly from 2017 – and HSBC is 82nd, also down from a year ago. JP Morgan ranks 83rd, while Santander and RBC are 96th and 92nd, respectively. UBS is at 172, while Goldman Sachs is at 174. DBS, the Singapore-based group, is at 202, and Morgan Stanley is at 201.

When measured for what is the “strongest” brand, Ferrari claims the highest score, standing out at 94.8 out of a possible maximum of 100, overtaking brands such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Lego, and Disney. 

Brand Finance determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance.

The report also noted that the “Big Four” professional services firms (Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and EY) also fared strongly for brand strength in 2018 and three of them posted the same elite AAA+ brand rating as Ferrari. 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 $29.6 billion), pulling ahead of last year’s sector leader, PwC, this year with a BSI score of 89.8 ($24.9 billion). EY also continues to attain elite AAA+ status, with a BSI of 89.7 ($23.2 billion) having achieved fast growth in both brand strength and brand value since 2015.