Smartphone woes slash $US10b from Nokia's brand value

Stuart Corner
Saturday, 26 March 2011 22:47

IT Industry - Market

The latest ranking of the most valuable brands across all major markets from Brand Finance shows that Nokia's plummeting fortunes in the smartphone market have slashed $US9.9b from the value of its brand.

 

In contrast, BP's brand value has lost only $US3.4b, despite the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion, widespread pollution, adverse publicity and the focus thrown on BP's poor safety record.

Nokia is clearly hoping that its newly forged alliance with Microsoft will reverse the decline, but it has also just unveiled another strategy - a rebranding that, in addition to a change in the corporate logo has seen the creation of a complete font - Nokia Pure - and will in time be reflected in the user interface of all Nokia products.

Of Nokia, Brand Finance said: "The company has struggled in the smartphone market, a victim of Apple's success, although the partnership with Microsoft may help to revive their fortunes.

David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said: ''The rise of the technology brands has been expected for some time, although Nokia's fall shows that it is tough to stay at the forefront of such a dynamic industry. Over the last couple of years, we have found that, across many leading companies, senior management are increasingly using brand valuation dashboards to monitor the health of their brands throughout the year in order to make better informed strategic marketing decisions. This trend is likely to continue as the sheer size of these brand values becomes impossible to ignore.''

The Brand Finance Global 500 is claimed to be the world's most comprehensive brand value league table, ranking the most valuable brands across all major markets. Its latest edition ranked Google as the most valuable brand in the world ($US44.3bn), edging Microsoft ($US42.8bn) into second place· Coca-Cola dropped out of the top ten for the first time ($US25.8bn) and Facebook entered the table in 285th place with a brand value of $US3.7bn.