Coca-Cola Retains Top Spot for Most Valuable Brand in 2011

Bloomberg has just released its updated list of the world’s most valuable brands, with the top seven brands retaining their same spots from the previous year. Coca-Cola is in first, with a net value of $71.861 billion, with IBM in second at a close $69.905 billion. Microsoft places third, Google fourth, GE fifth, McDonald’s sixth and Intel seventh. The value delta between #1 and #10 in this list is $43.382 billion.

The delta between #1 and #100, however, is a staggering $68.349 billion. That last place belongs to Harley-Davidson, with a total value of $3.512. It’s rather impressive just how fast the value soars upwards from the bottom to the top, though the biggest differences are seen in the top ten.

I’m not an investor, but I like looking through these lists because it gives an interesting perspective on competition. In one example, I have always considered Coca-Cola and Pepsi to be on equal ground, but in actuality, Coca-Cola is worth almost 5x as much. Intel vs. AMD? That’s a bit tough, given AMD doesn’t even appear in the top 100, whereas Intel places #7 (AMD would however place close to the top 100).

A major change of note is Apple, which jumped from #17 to #8 in the span of a single year. The year-over-year value increase was 58%, to value it at $33.492. Given the company’s current momentum, it’s likely that it will surpass both Intel and McDonald’s in next year’s report.