Again, Toyota has emerged the world’s most valuable car brand in a new ranking, holding off BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla.
According to the BrandZ top 100 most valuable global brands study released by market researcher Kantar Millward Brown, Toyota clearly retained its top position.
The foremost global researchers explained that Toyota has been No. 1 in 10 of the 12 years the study has been conducted.
Global BrandZ director at Kantar Millward Brown, Peter Walshe in an interview with Automotive News Europe said: “Toyota is seen as a reliable, quality value brand,even when it was going through its recall problems, the users were saying, ‘What’s all the fuss about, my car is fine.’ Toyota has delivered great value for years.”
Meanwhile, Toyota’s brand value decreased 3 percent to $28.7 billion as increased sales were offset by tough currency challenges as well as increased investment and rising labour costs.
According to Auto News, Tesla, which increased its brand value 32 percent to $5.9 billion, overtook Land Rover and Porsche to jump to No. 8 in this year’s ranking from No. 10 last year among automotive brands.
“The Tesla story is interesting because it is not just the cars it offers now, it is the promise for the future,” Walshe said. “There is a perception that it offers a fantastic brand experience, even among non-owners. The only other brands that I’ve seen have this kind of appeal before they got into mass market were Apple and Facebook.”
Land Rover slipped to a spot to No. 9 despite increasing its brand value 17 percent to $5.5 billion. “Land Rover is doing incredibly well in all its main markets because of the growing appetite for SUVs. They have taken advantage of that,” Walshe said.
BMW remained in second place despite its brand value decreasing 8 percent to $24.6 billion. The decrease was partially due to rising investment costs for new technologies and a sales slowdown in the U.S. Despite the slight dip, the German automaker continued to win over customers in two key areas.
“BMW is really making money from its position as a leader in the luxury niche. It’s doing so because of different reasons. One is its consistency in delivering great driveability and another is with the its innovation,” Walshe said. “As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and when you come to dine on BMW it’s a fabulous taste.”
Mercedes’ value increased by 4 percent to $23.5 billion, which helped it retain the No. 3 spot. The company’s record unit sales, revenue and net profit in 2016 played a big role in boosting its brand value as did a restructuring of its company-owned dealer network.
The total value of the Top 10 car brands dipped to $139.2 billion from $139.9 billion in 2016. A reason for that is automakers are investing billions in to develop solutions to the many challenges they face including new forms of ownership and greater connectivity of their vehicles.
“Automotive brands in the top 10 are worth 6 percent less than they were when we started our study 12 years ago, but those brands have investment 100 to 200 percent more into technology,” Walshe said. “The brands that have done best are those that have adapted to their consumers.”
He says the industry is at a crossroads. “If you speak to the automakers, they are constantly looking for way to create collaborations to adapt to this new world. This is why BMW and Nissan are working with Microsoft on a connected vehicle platform and Ford and BMW are working with Amazon on cloud-based voice services.”
When it comes to the ranking of all brands, Google retained the No. 1 spot. Google’s brand value rose 7 percent to $245.6 billion.
