Interbrand, the world's largest brand consulting firm, announced its "Best Global Brands 2013" ranking on September 30th. The ranking, which targets globally expanding companies, uniquely converts the brand value of each brand into a monetary value and presents the top 100 brands in a ranking format. The ranking has been published annually since 1999, and this year marks the 14th time it has been published. The evaluation methodology is based on three factors: "financial analysis," which predicts a company's future profits; "brand role analysis," which extracts the brand's contribution to profits; and "brand strength analysis," which assesses the reliability of future brand profits. Brand value is calculated based on these analyses. Companies also meet certain criteria for inclusion in the ranking, including "overseas sales ratios of 30% or more outside their home country," "expansion into at least three major continents, including emerging markets," and "global recognition, even for B2B brands." The top 10 brands are: 1st Apple, 2nd Google, 3rd Coca-Cola, 4th IBM, 5th Microsoft, 6th GE, 7th McDonald's, 8th Samsung, 9th Intel, and 10th Toyota. Apple has become the world's most valuable brand, replacing Coca-Cola, which held the top spot for 13 years. The top five brands in terms of brand value growth are Facebook, which saw a 43% increase from the previous year, followed by Google, Prada, Apple, and Amazon. Four of the five brands are technology-related. Prada's effective integration of IT and the real world, as well as the Prada Foundation's support for the art world, have earned it the third-place ranking in terms of brand value growth, following technology brands like Facebook and Google. Among luxury brands, seven brands ranked: Louis Vuitton (17th, up 6% from last year), Gucci (38th, up 7%), Hermès (54th, up 23%), Cartier (60th, up 26%), Prada (72nd, up 30%), Tiffany & Co. (75th, up 5%), and Burberry (77th, up 20%). All seven brands saw their brand value increase by more than 5% from last year.

Of the 14 automotive brands ranked, nine achieved double-digit growth. Toyota (10th, up 17% from last year) maintained its position as the industry leader. Asian brands included Samsung, Hyundai, and Kia.

While Japanese brands such as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan saw their value increase, Canon (35th place, down 9% from the previous year), Sony (46th place, down 8% from the previous year), Nintendo (67th place, down 14% from the previous year), and Panasonic (68th place, up 1% from the previous year) all dropped in rank.