Ecosystem Brand Building Boosts Amazon

Amazon tops the latest BrandZ ranking of most valuable global brands, with a 52% surge in its value attributed to a diverse eco-system of products and services that have enable the e-commerce giant continuously accelerate its brand value growth.

BrandZ valued Amazon at $315bn, ahead of Apple ($309bn, +3%), Google ($309bn, +2%), Microsoft ($251bn, +25%) and Visa ($177bn, +22%).

Overall, the top ten in the BrandZ Top 100 Most valuable Global Brands for 2019 are the same as last year but in a different order, with Tencent the biggest loser as its brand value fell 27% to $131bn; Instagram (#44, $28.2bn) was the fastest riser climbing 47 places with a massive +95% growth in brand value.

“The growth in value of this year’s top 100 brands to an all-time high proves the power of investing in brands to deliver superior shareholder value,” said David Roth, CEO of The Store WPP EMEA and Asia and Chairman of BrandZ.

“Behind this headline growth figure lies the success coming from a new phenomenon of ecosystem brand building. We’re seeing a move from individual product and service brands to a new era of highly-disruptive ecosystems.”

“Brands need to understand the value this type of model can create and should embrace its approach to be successful in the future,” he stated.

Doreen Wang, Kantar’s Global Head of BrandZ, added that Amazon’s brand value growth “demonstrates how brands are now less anchored to individual categories and regions” as “technology fluency” blurs boundaries.

“Disruptive ecosystem models are flourishing in regions such as Asia, where consumers are more technology-enabled and where brands are integrating themselves into every aspect of people’s daily lives,” she said.

A different perspective was offered by Hugh Fletcher, Global Head of Consultancy and Innovation, Wunderman Thompson Commerce, who, while broadly concurring with the ecosystem analysis (which he described as “aggressive horizontality”), argued that “brand recognition is of little interest to Amazon”.

“Unless this ranking makes Amazon more money, it’s unlikely to be heralded as anything other than the bi-product of great service by the Seattle HQ,” he observed.