The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Toyota has been ranked the top motor company in the annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands Study. This marks the ninth time that Toyota has topped the automotive category in the report’s 12-year history.
| THE INDEPENDENT | Conducted by market research firm Millward Brown, the study lists values for the world’s largest corporations by considering brand saliency, taking into account how brands resonate with buyers, and whether they offer the benefit of different and trendsetting products and features.
Along with being the top automotive company Toyota ranked 30th overall amongst all segments – right between Louis Vuitton and Walmart – with a brand value of $28.7-billion. BMW was the second-highest ranked automotive company in the survey with a brand value of $24.5-billion, ahead of Mercedes-Benz ($23.5-billion), Ford ($13-billion), Honda ($12.1-billion), Nissan ($11.3-billion), and Audi ($9.4-billion).
Technology giants Google ($245.6-billion), Apple ($234.7-billion), Microsoft ($143.2-billion), Amazon ($139.3-billion) and Facebook ($129.8-billion) took the overall top five places in this year’s survey.
Meanwhile, if you have ever wondered which are the most googled car brands in the world? British parts company Quickco has just answered the question.
Toyota enjoys a dominant lead in a ranking based on the number of countries (74 in Toyota’s case) rather than the number of people who searched for that particular brand.
Most Africa searched for Toyotas more than any other brand and only South Africans didn’t get that memo as they opted to type Mercedes-Benz into their search engines, together with Namibia and Botswana.
The rest of the southern African region also had a premium German brand at the top of their minds. It was BMW that Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe googled more than any other. BMW was also second overall globally.
Interestingly, sensible brands dominated in the rest of Africa, and the world for that matter, with Hyundai, Honda and Chevrolet completing the top five.
One glaring exception, though, were the highly ambitious residents of Niger, where Bugatti was the most googled brand.
There was hardly a great sense of patriotism among many of the car-creating countries, with Japan, South Korea and Britain searching BMW, while the US and China followed the Toyota herd.
Some of the European countries took exception to that rule, with Volvo dominating in Sweden, Renault in France, BMW in Germany and Fiat in Italy. Very patriotic of all of them, no doubt.
Bear in mind that this research did not feature data from any search engine other than Google, for what it’s worth.
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