By Chantal Marx
The BrandZ Global Top 100 report was released at the end of June, and it showed that Apple maintained the honours of being the most valuable brand in the world for a fourth year running. Generally, brand values climbed, with the Top 100 adding 29% in brand value to surpass $10 trillion in total in 2024/2025.
Apple's brand value appreciated by 28% - ahead of its closest brand giants Google (+37%) and Microsoft (+35%). Fourth-placed Amazon saw its brand value jump 50% over the year. The top five was again rounded off by Nvidia (+152%) - a re-entrant to the Top 20 in 2024.
For a second year running, the fastest growing brand was chipmaker, Nvidia (+152%), as its AI capability remained centre stage in the last year. Others growing quickly included Meta apps, Instagram (+101%) and Facebook (+80%), Huawei (+142%) and value retailers, Walmart (+72%) and Costco (+67%). In terms of business line, technology showed the strongest growth. Conversely, alcohol (-11%) struggled amid weakness in the Chinese economy, changing consumption patterns and heightened competition. Apparel was an interesting category - while essentially flat on an aggregate basis in terms of brand value there was a major divergence in fortunes. Uniqlo, Zara, and adidas saw strong brand value increases of 43%, 37%, and 31%, respectively. Category leader Nike saw its brand value decline by 31%, Lululemon brand value declined 12% and Shein was flat.
New entrants and re-entrants to the Top 100 brands included ChatGTP, Spotify, Chipotle, Booking.com, Uniqlo, adidas and Hilton. OpenAI's ChatGPT was this year's most valuable newcomer and the youngest in age. First launched in November 2022, ChatGPT has not only created a market for large language model AI tools, but it also touched off a race to define these tools as brands (think DeepSeek, Grok, Claude and Llama).
We have been running a concentrated 20-stock mock portfolio for the last 12 years based on this survey. Brand remains a key consideration in valuing the investment and financial potential of companies. According to David Muir of WPP, in 1977 intangible asset values (brand, trademarks, patents, etc.) were roughly comparable to the tangible values of companies. Twenty years later, intangible values stood at more than three times that of tangible values and 37 years on, the value difference is even more pronounced. The reason for this is that if a company delivers on its brand promise, it can experience a "herding effect" in sales growth. People are more likely to purchase or use a product if others are doing so to. Theoretically, this sales growth should then filter down to earnings and translate into higher shareholder returns.
Portfolio modelling methodology
We model (by way of an exercise) a portfolio consisting of the top 20 brands weighted according to brand value as measured by BrandZ™. The portfolio is reweighted and realigned annually according to brand value approximately a month after the rankings are released.
Portfolio performance
The Brand Portfolio added 17.6% between 31 July last year and 30 July 2025, slightly outperforming the MSCI World Index and the S&P 500. The portfolio has slightly underperformed the MSCI World Index and S&P500 index across a five-year period but has outperformed over a ten-year investment horizon. Over the past year, the MSCI World added 16.8% and the S&P 500 is 16.7% higher. Over ten years, the Brands Portfolio delivered an annualised return of 17.7% (MSCI World: +12.3% and S&P 500: +14.8%).
Changes to the portfolio for the coming year
For the 2025 portfolio, we have Adobe, Verizon, Moutai and Aramco exiting the top 20 and Walmart, Netflix, T-Mobile, and Costco entering the portfolio. Per our methodology, Apple will carry the largest weight in the portfolio this year followed by Alphabet and Microsoft.
Conclusion
The Brands Portfolio appears to offer relatively steady returns over time - for the most part due to the combination of new, exciting brands and mature, iconic brands. The former provides impetus for stock price appreciation, while the latter is expected to offer stability and downside protection to a certain extent. The portfolio is therefore expected to underperform during periods of rapid stock market appreciation and outperform during periods of contraction or uncertainty.
As we have always highlighted in the past, this strategy does not come without its fair share of risks. Concentration risk is a key concern - the portfolio is heavily exposed to North America and Industrial counters, particularly those with a technology focus. Perhaps most important to note is that brands can fall out of favour quickly - consider the demise of BlackBerry after the launch of the iPhone as one example, or more recently how the rise of Netflix has disrupted cable companies like HBO and ABC.
Longer term, the overall return is higher than our benchmarks, and the strategy has proved superior on a risk-adjusted basis.
