Any student of branding could hardly be surprised upon reading that Apple had surpassed Google as the world’s most valuable brand.
Admittedly, calculating brand value requires a bit of financial vapor. That said, all of us in the brand marketing profession know that Apple’s brand halo is worth its weight in diamonds, and is the envy of our industry. In fact they’ve done such a remarkable job with their brand that it’s difficult for me to talk about our firm’s practice with existing and prospective customers without referring to how “Apple does what they do” because, simply, they’ve written the book on how to build a highly distinctive brand that has no peer in their brandscape, and whose customers are as rabid and loyal as they come.
And it’s this last attribute that is the cornerstone of the brand’s value: when the market will crawl through a sewer, and line-up around the block to purchase your new products, you’ve got a powerful lever that allows for premium pricing, and WOM derived sales that build empires.
If one ever needed to justify the value and power of a brand, Apple has consistently provided the finest object lesson any ambitious marketer could ever want. Big ups to the teams at TBWA/Chiat/Day, and of course, Apple.