The BrandZ Top 100 annual study revealed that Toyota is once again the world’s most valuable auto brand, after losing the position last year to BMW due to the massive recall campaign. Toyota saw an 11 percent increase in its brand value, which is now rated at $24.2 billion (€16.85 billion). The research company Millward Brown, whose global brand director said Toyota’s recall had not affected consumers’ confidence in the carmaker, compiled the ranking.
“It was a highly trusted brand before the recall and the company was always going to bounce back if it acted responsibly, which it did. It shows the resilience of the brand,” Peter Walshe told Autonews Europe. Toyota ranked as the world’s most valuable auto brand four years in a row, from 2006 through 2009. In 2010, however, the Japanese carmaker lost the first place to BMW amid quality concerns triggered by massive recall actions.
BMW dropped to second place this year in the BrandZ Top 100 study, followed by Mercedes-Benz, whose brand value increased by 12 percent. The German company overtook Honda, followed by Porsche, which finished in fifth place. Nissan was the brand with the biggest value growth at +17 percent, claiming the sixth position. According to Walshe, in Nissan’s case the increase is due to the marketing buzz created by the Leaf electric car. “Nissan is positioning itself as a green leader and its stance is paying off. It has also realized it is a challenger brand in most markets, so it is doing things differently in terms of its new models,” he said.
The Top 10 automotive list was completed by VW, Ford, Audi and Lexus. The BrandZ Top 100 ranking is led by Apple, which took the top spot from Google. Millward Brown rankings are based on interviews with more than 1 million consumers globally and financial and business performance analysis of each company using data from Bloomberg and Datamonitor.
By Dan Mihalascu
