FutureBrand Index 2016

For the third year QRi Consulting are pleased to announce the FutureBrand Index 2016 launched at the London Stock Exchange on Thursday 21st July 2016

The FutureBrand Index is a global perception study of PwC’s Global Top 100 Companies.

The FutureBrand Index sets out to prove the hypothesis that financial value and past performance are not enough to guarantee future brand strength. Our ranking here re-orders the Global Top 100 Companies in terms of perception strength, rather than financial strength.

The Global top 10 ranking is as follows:

1: Apple

2: Microsoft

3: Samsung

4: The Walt Disney Company

5: Abbvie

6: Facebook

7: Toyota

8: Amazon

9: Celgene

10: Gilead

New trends in 2016 reveals the companies that have consistently qualified as ‘future brands’ year on year have a higher average market capitalization than the Top 100 companies overall. These companies include Apple, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Inditex, Walt Disney, AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung and Toyota.

Perception strength is also increasing year on year. The average strength of perception across the Global Top 100 Companies has increased by 10% since 2014. This has also translated into more ‘future brands’ in the Index (from 22 to 24), and more ‘admired’ corporates (from 22 to 35). This suggests that people are feeling more positive towards the world’s largest organizations. Financial Services and Consumer Services organizations are enjoying joint-strongest increases this year.

On August 10th 2015, Google announced the creation of Alphabet, a new holding company that would house the company’s activities beyond core Internet services. Importantly, Alphabet is now the organization listed in the Top 100 by market capitalization, rather than Google itself. This change presented an opportunity to understand the impact of corporate name change on global perception, so our research in 2016 deliberately included Google as well as Alphabet to allow us to make like-for-like comparisons between the two entities. Our data reveals that Google would have been at the top of the ranking by a significant margin for the third year in a row, ahead of Apple and the other organizations in the top 5. However, Alphabet does much less well, despite qualifying as a ‘future brand’ in 21st position. Perceptions of Alphabet are also weaker across every attribute.

Furthermore, for the first time there has been a focus shift from technology to consumer services. Technology is slowing down and we are seeing some of the perception increases in the consumer services category – up 10% in 2016 – together with some significant performance improvement for specific consumer goods firms.

QRi worked in close collaboration with FutureBrand, helping to define the research approach using FutureBrand’s initial hypothesis, as well as managing recruitment, questionnaire development, and providing in-depth analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data underpinning the report.

The FBI Index is also informed by our extensive research, brand and sector knowledge and experience as well as our proprietary QualiQuant methodologies.

QRi Cn4StCiWgAANreoare delighted to be FutureBrand’s global research partner for the FutureBrand Index.

Please click on the following link for more information on the 2016 FutureBrand Index:

http://fbi.futurebrand.com/