There were seven newcomers to the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands this year and, reflecting the shift away from Europe and North America, three of those brands are Chinese, plus one each from Australia, India, Japan and the US. And a trio of them are also telecoms providers, in the shape of Australia’s Telstra, SoftBank from Japan and China Telecom, while Chinese telecoms supplier Huawei also features in the ranking.
Telstra increased in brand value based on the strength of the Australian market and additional opportunities in Asia, while SoftBank owns the majority of telecom provider Sprint, which positions it to compete in the US market. Having received government approval to operate 4G late in 2013, China Telecom spent much of 2014 installing its 4G network across China. Huawei supplies telecoms with network infrastructure and increasingly focuses on providing the Internet and cloud infrastructure required for improved connectivity in e-commerce and other segment.
Telecom sector brand value rose 17% over the course of 2014, while technology and retail both spiked 24% in the same period as the BrandZ Top 100 moved up 14%. Only two sectors lost value – global banking (-2%) and luxury (-6%).