Louis Vuitton is the world’s most valuable luxury brand for the 2nd year in a row, according to the 2016 BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking compiled by Millward Brown and WPP.
Overall, it was a challenging year for the category performance in the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands. Six of 14 categories declined in value compared with only two last year. Apparel led category growth with a 14 percent increase after being flat a year ago. Most categories that increased last year also increased in the 2016 Global Top 100, but more slowly. For example, retail and technology rose 8% and 6% respectively this year after having each increased 24% in the 2015 ranking.
Conversely, some of the categories that last year increased only slightly or declined in value, declined sharply in the 2016 global ranking. The precipitous plunge in oil prices, which drove this change, also impacted many of the other categories. Global economic forces, particularly the slowdown of Brazil, China and Russia, also impacted the brand value performance of many categories.
Luxury best illustrates the influence of these factors. The category declined 5% from 2015 after declining 6% a year ago. Only three of the BrandZ Top 10 Luxury Brands showed growth: Louis Vuitton (up 4%), second ranked brand Hermès, growing 5% and Chanel, in 4th place, grew 15%. List newcomer Christian Dior came in at number 10.
Despite the decline in the value of luxury goods this year, the BrandZ full report indicates that Luxury brands have sustained and even increased their desirability, even as the global financial crisis and a recalibration of purchasing attitudes away from conspicuous consumption and toward what The Futures Company calls “considered consumption,” have affected sales. It credits Brand Heritage, Brand Experience and Brand Love for the underlying strength of the Top Ten Luxury Brands.
“Luxury brands balance heritage and Innovation to simultaneously preserve brands and renew them,” says the report.
The BrandZ ranking measures consumer brand perception along with financial data to calculate brand value. The full list includes 100 of the world’s most valuable brands.
To download a full copy of this excellent report, please go here:
http://wppbaz.com/admin/uploads/files/BZ_Global_2016_Report.pdf
The section on Luxury begins on page 152. Other areas that may be of high interest to TMI readers are Brazil, beginning on page 94; Latin America, beginning on page 98, and China, page 102.
