According to Forbes, the 100 most valuable brands of 2019 are worth a cumulative $2.33 trillion, up 8% over last year. An enormous amount of money; much more than the GDP of all poor countries of the world, where more than half of the planet’s population lives. Apple is om top, again. The brand of the tech giant is worth $205.5 billion, up 12% over last year. It is the first time a brand crossed the $200 billion threshold.
While Apple maintains its spot at the top, Google is closing fast with a value of $167.7 billion, up 23%. The Apple brand was worth more than twice as much as the ubiquitous search brand just four years ago. Generally, tech brands were the top gainers, led by e-commerce giant Amazon, up 37% to $97 billion. Other big winners: Netflix (+34%), Google (+27%) and Adobe (+27%).
According to The Economist ‘brands have evolved from simple trademarks to one of the major organising principles of modern life’. In reaction to this, Naomi Klein, in her much acclaimed book No Logo, stated that brands, because of their market power, make the world worse.
The opposite could however also be claimed. Because of their market power, brands have the potential to make the world better.
Brands can guide consumers to ‘buy into better’. By providing a sense of meaning and direction towards a better world. A world that is more sustainable, fair, transparant, equal, peaceful, loving and happy. Just imagine what this more positive vision on branding can bring.
Inspired by this vision, back in 2016 I co-founded, the ‘Pro Logo’ platform BrandAid (brandaid.org) to inspire the best brands of the world also to become the best brands for the world. Because great power, demands great responsibility!
Brandaid.org is on a mission to do just that and help corporations, their employees and their customers and stakeholders at large to buy into better. As a manifestation of their Corporate Social Responsibility, or the other way around, their Consumer Social Responsibility.
Now again, Erik Saelens asks attention for this idea.
After BandAid, it’s time for BrandAid, because more than bands, brands have the power to change the world for better/build a better world.
Instead of blaming brands to be the cause of many problems in the world and saying ‘No Logo’, it’s time we demand brands to seize the opportunity and become the solution by putting a purposeful positioning in practice!
Read Erik’s article in The Drum here.
Next to this, there’s also the Sustainable Brands initiative, The Bridge to Better Brands.
Sustainable Brands wants to be a global community of brand innovators who are shaping the future of commerce worldwide. Driven by the goal to inspire, engage, and equip business leaders and practitioners who see social and environmental challenges as an essential driver of brand innovation, value creation, and positive impact.
Sustainable Brands Believe:
1. Brands are uniquely positioned to align business and society on the path to a flourishing future.
2. Those brands that embrace this challenge will prosper in the 21st century.
3. Accomplishing this challenge requires a new way of seeing the world – along with a new set of skills, tools, and collaborators.
Read more about it here.
