The World’s Fastest Growing Brands in 2017, by Value

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

In a modern business era of near-constant disruption, which brands are winning the hearts of consumers the fastest?

Today’s charts look at the brands that are trending upwards. See below for the brands that have gained the most in brand value since last year, as assessed by BrandZ in their report on the world’s 100 most valuable brands.

Onwards and Upwards for Tech

As many big name brands try to find their footing in today’s fast-paced consumer environment, it’s not surprising to see up-and-coming tech brands skyrocketing in value.

In line with growing revenues, tech brands like Amazon, Facebook, and Netflix are also flying high with their brands. Amazon, for example, had its brand value soar 41% since last year to make it the fourth most valuable brand in the world at $139 billion. Chinese tech companies are gaining traction in the eyes of consumers as well, with Tencent and Alibaba both growing their brand values at clips of 20% or higher.

Note: the measure of “brand value”, not to be confused with company valuation metrics like market cap, is a way of quantifying the dollar value that a particular brand’s image is contributing to the overall value of a corporation.

Other Big Movers

Although tech brands seem to be moving up the list in unison, it’s also worth examining the brands in other sectors that have seen their brand values rapidly increase.

The brands seen here have some interesting commonalities and points worth noting.

Firstly, despite not being a tech brand, Adidas was actually the fastest-growing brand in the whole report with a 58% increase in brand value from 2016 to 2017. According to the analysis, the apparel brand saw its retro sneakers “connect perfectly” with the fashion moment.

Next, alcohol brands also generally performed admirably. Three of the brands that had double-digit growth were owned by the world’s largest beer company, AB InBev – and two of those brands (Skol and Brahma) are Brazilian. Further, Kweichow Moutai, a Chinese liquor maker that surpassed Diageo earlier this year in market capitalization, is also rising fast.

Also of interest is that two 3G Capital restaurant brands, Burger King and Tim Horton’s, happened to increase substantially in brand value. Of course, 3G Capital owns a stake in the aforementioned AB InBev as well.

New Entrants

The following brands are the newest entrants on the 2017 edition of the top 100 list:

However, as we transition into 2018, these new entrants may have very different fortunes ahead of them.

On one hand, Salesforce has been outlining when it’ll hit $20 billion in sales, and Netflix is still crushing expectations for subscription growth.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Snap Inc. recently reported slow user growth, which made shares tumble 18% in value. The company’s platform, Snapchat, is locked in a battle with Instagram for users, and it remains to be seen how this will affect both company and brand values down the road.