Google is bigger than Microsoft, at least in Marketing

source: dailymail.co.uk
The phrase 'I'll just Google it' has helped make the Internet search giant the world's first $100billion dollar brand. Beating out other household names, from Microsoft to Coca Cola and McDonald's, the company' value of £68.5billion puts it 25 per cent more valuable than computer software king Microsoft.

The phrase 'I'll just Google it' has helped make the Internet search giant the world's first $100billion dollar brand.

Beating out other household names, from Microsoft to Coca Cola and McDonald's, the company' value of £68.5billion puts it 25 per cent more valuable than computer software king Microsoft.

Coca Cola managed third place in the listing, which work out a company's brand contributes to its financial performance.
Recognise this? Google has gone from a small Internet start-up to a global phenomenon in just over a decade

Recognise this? Google has gone from a small Internet start-up to a global phenomenon in just over a decade

The analysts of the Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands by consultants Millward Brown found that, overall, the total value was up just two per cent.

Yet for the six British brands in the final countdown, their value was up 14 per cent, led by Vodafone, which this year becomes the first UK firm to ever make the global top ten.

Technology companies make up the bulk of the Top 10, including IBM and China Mobile, along with cigarette brand Marlboro and burger chain McDonald's.
McDonalds
Vodafone

Two other household names: The famous McDonald's golden arches and Vodafone's inverted comma

Britain's other brands in the list of 100 include Tesco and UK-based banks Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered.

The top ten UK brands also includes Marks & Spencer and Asda, Smirnoff, BP and mobile phone network O2.

Google, formed at Stanford University by students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997, went up 16 per cent in brand value in the past year to just break the £100billion dollar.

Google marketing manager Lorraine Twohill said: 'We know that without consumers you have nothing and there is a great element of trust in us.

'We think about the consumer first and expect everything else to fall into place after that. We don't feel big. We still work in little crappy teams and we feel very small.'

Among industries to see their value grow over the past year, most are 'stay at home' brands said Millward Brown.

Coffee companies like Nescafe benefitted from cutbacks on drinking expensive lattes in Starbucks and other coffee shops, for instance.

Soft drinks, fast food and beer brands also grew as more people stayed at home to eat and drink while online sites like eBay and Amazon also grew.

Car companies, insurers, clothing brands and, not surprisingly, financial institutions were the ones to suffer the most, the research found.

Millward Brown chief executive Joanna Seddon said: 'In the current environment brand has become even more important because it can help to sustain companies in tough times.

'Those who continue to invest in their brand will be better positioned for business growth as the economic situation starts to improve than those who have cut spend.'

The recession does not always harm individual brands as much as it does faceless corporations, she added.

'People do not blame the brands for everything that has gone wrong,' she said, 'they blame the corporations and the people who run them.'