The most powerful brands in the world

The list of the most powerful brands in the world:

No. 1 Apple
Brand value: $87.1 billion
Consumer perception rank: 11

The value of the Apple brand has soared 52% over the past two years with the success of the
iPhone and iPad. Global consumers give Microsoft higher marks in perception study done by
Landor, but Apple's significantly higher brand value makes it the world's most powerful
brand.
Apple has taken its lumps the past two weeks with the rollout of the iPhone 5. Customer
complaints about the Maps app and phones that easily scratch sparked cries that these
things never would have happened under Steve Jobs watch. Is the Apple brand headed
south? Not a chance.
Apple remains a leader in innovation that is adored by consumers around the world. The
brand helped the company generate $40 billion in profits over the past 12-months, second
most in the world behind Exxon Mobil. How do you measure the power of a brand? It is the
combination of financial value and positive consumer sentiment and Apple has both in
abundance, which puts the Apple brand on top of Forbes inaugural list of the Worlds Most
Powerful Brands

No. 2 Microsoft
Brand value: $54.7 billion
Consumer perception rank: 1

Surprise! Microsoft gets the highest consumer perception scores in a global survey of 2,000
adults. Consumers credit Microsoft on things like "positively impacting lives on a daily basis"
and "addresses my unique needs." The value of the brand is down 3% over the past two
years, which keeps it ranked No. 2 overall behind Apple.

No. 3 Coca-Cola
Brand value: $50.2 billion
Consumer perception rank: 29

Coca-Cola is fighting an uphill battle in the U.S. as soda gets part of the blame for the obesity
problem in the country, but the company still sold 26.7 billion cases of soda worldwide in
2011. Half of those sales are for the Coca-Cola brand. Brand loving Warren Buffett owns the
biggest stake in the company, $15 billion, through his firm Berkshire Hathaway.

No. 4 IBM
Brand value: $48.5 billion
Consumer perception rank: 20
IBM and its brand were in a death spiral in the early 1990s as the company was perceived as
a tech hardware dinosaur. But IBM has reinvented itself over the past two decades as a
powerful brand in tech as a software and services giant.

No. 5 Google
Brand value: $37.6 billion
Consumer perception rank: 7

You know a brand is powerful when it becomes the generic term for the category, as Google
has in search. But what separates Google from brands like Kleenex and Xerox is the amount
of money it generates. Google earned $12.2 billion in earnings before interest and taxes in
2011.

No. 6 Intel
Brand value: $32.3 billion
Consumer perception rank: 6

The Intel brand scores on both the financials and with consumers. It generated $17.5 billion
in earnings before interest and taxes in 2011 and it was the top rated brand on perception
among men in a global survey by Landor.

No. 7 McDonald's
Brand value: $37.4 billion
Consumer perception rank: 85

McDonald's score poorly with consumers, but with more than 33,500 local restaurants
serving 68 million people in 119 countries each day, the financial value of the McDonald's
brand is among the highest of any brand.

No. 8 General Electric

Brand value: $33.7 billion
Consumer perception rank: 49

General Electric's reputation and market value have been dinged over the past decade, but it
continues to be a force in industrial sectors and remains an iconic brand. General Electric is
the only company in the original Dow Jones Industrial Average, founded 1896, that is still a
part of the Dow today.

No. 9 BMW
Brand value: $26.3 billion
Consumer perception rank: 5

Consumers rate BMW highest among all brands on "high quality products and services" and
fifth overall. The Ultimate Driving Machine is the global sales market leader for luxury
vehicles.

No. 10 Samsung
Brand value: $19.3 billion
Consumer perception rank: 9

Samsung has promoted its brand through the Olympics since it was a local sponsor at the
Seoul 1988 Olympic Games in its home country. It became a worldwide partner in 1997. The
brand ranks fourth overall among consumers on "innovative ideas and research."

FORBES,2012