“It is likely that Toyota's brand has suffered further in recent months, but it is a strong brand and is trying hard to overcome the damage through a major communications campaign. All of our evidence shows that strong brands are much more likely to recover from a crisis," said Peter Walshe, global brand director, in a telephone interview for the Automotive News.
BMW’s brand value declined 9 percent compared to the 2009 ranking to just over $21.8 billion, according to the study. Toyota's brand value dropped 27 percent to just under $21.8 billion. But Ford and Volkswagen improved their brand value. In Ford’s case, the increase in brand value was helped by the company's investment in high-tech innovations such as its Sync voice activated electronics control system, and in new technologies such as emission control, as well as by the smart use of social media. Ford boosted its brand value by 19 percent to $7 billion.
Volkswagen increased its brand value by 20 percent to just under $7 billion, while Audi improved 2 percent to $3.6 billion. “Both carmakers are viewed as trustworthy brands with style, global distribution, German engineering and lower prices than prestige makes such as BMW and Mercedes,” Millward Brown said in a statement.
Mercedes-Benz, however, saw its brand value decline by 11 percent to $13.7 billion, while Porsche's brand value fell also 31 percent to $12 billion. The Top 100 ranking is led by Google, with brand value of $114 billion, followed by IBM at $86 billion and Apple at $83 million.
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