Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/22/visualization-of-global-bran.html
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The interesting thing about this visualisation is just how sudden some changes were. How quickly first Google and then Apple just marched up through the rankings. How Amazon slowly but steadily appeared on the rankings, and how Facebook has kind of plateaued, and is sinking again.
And how no one realises just what a financial powerhouse BoingBoing is. Why, it’s never seen, that’s how good they are! Fnord.
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Also, I am rather shocked how long Marlboro stayed in the rankings, slowly slipping off the chart in 2008. And have you noticed the sudden drop in satisfaction with everything around 2014? It’s almost as though Google and Apple have kidnapped everyone and brainwashed their priorities, but of course, that was never in anyone’s annual report projections.
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The increasing concentration at the top is somewhat worrying, but then again, what real value was there in having a company that sells sugar in water as the top brand?
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I’m not sure what these numbers actually represent – for Apple, $200m is too high to be their revenue and too low to be their market cap – but I assume it is somehow measuring how much money people spend on each brand. And since it doesn’t measure the bulk of commerce (mostly-unbranded stuff like energy, transport, food), I guess what this chart shows is what the economy is “paying attention to”.
It’s interesting to note that the chart largely stays the same, except that Apple and Google suddenly have huge numbers which cause everything else to be drawn smaller. That makes sense, because smartphones are in effect a major part of life that just appeared overnight; if cars were invented in 2010 I assume the Ford number would have flared the same way.
Because the meaning of “brand value” is unclear, I don’t know if the high figure for Google is to do with Android or not. Either way it is troubling when you consider that all their money comes from advertising, yet they are a close second to Apple, which sells mind-boggling numbers of very expensive objects for cash.
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It’s like those mechanical horse race machines in old-timey arcades and just as scrutable.
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That most elastic of descriptors, “Best,” gets another stretching. Here the word apparently means “Worth the most money according to people who tot up how much corporations are worth.” It certainly has nothing to do with trustworthy, beneficial, or honest.
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and how marlboro in 2001 seems to have been replaced by mcdonalds… in 2018
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The carnival strength-test machine that rated me as “Beefcake” is ISO compliant tho, right?
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What is Brand Value?
Smartphones did not appear overnight, nor were they invented in 2010.
What Apple did was capitalize on their success as an entertainment and fashion brand to create a new brand of smartphone that was a fashionable accessory instead of just a technological gadget. Not to belittle that, it’s a real acheivement, but it was not “the invention of the smartphone” .
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Yeah, but Coca-Cola was a successful and growing concern back when Taft was president and cars were started with hand cranks. I wouldn’t bet against them still being on this list on some future day when Apple and Google are mentioned only in reminiscences.
It can’t be consumer recognition.
GE’s only consumer product is light bulbs. GE appliances are a rent-a-brand, made by Haier.
At first it was like watching paint dry then came 2008. The year I was laid off from my best job ever.
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