Despite covid-19, luxury labels ranked among the most valuable brands
The third annual Top 75 Most Valuable Global Retail Brands report from brand equity database BrandZ places three luxury brands – Hermès, Chanel and Louis Vuitton – in its top ten.
In tenth place, Hermès was valued at $33bn; Chanel was in ninth with $36.1bn; and Louis Vuitton was ranked fifth with a 2020 brand value of $51.8bn.
The report, presented by WPP and Kantar, used valuations data that incorporated stock price performance from April 2020 to reflect the impact of covid-19 on each brand’s value.
BrandZ highlighted Louis Vuitton’s new global flagship store in Seoul and creative partnerships with major artists. It also pointed out how quickly parent company LVMH pivoted in the face of the pandemic.
“The top retailers in the 2020 ranking illustrate the scale and breadth of activity making brands meaningfully different and salient to consumers in the coronavirus age,” BrandZ wrote of the report’s findings. “LVMH took only 72 hours to convert its production lines to make hand sanitizer”.
The ranking takes into account analysis of retailers' financial performance combined with millions of consumer surveys taken in more than 50 markets around the world. BrandZ said that historical data shows brands with the strongest brand equity recovered nine times faster after the financial crisis of 2008.
"The coronavirus crisis underscores the essential role that retail plays in both our daily lives and the overall global economy; we are seeing some heroic examples of retail companies stepping up to meet consumer need and keep the world turning,” said David Roth, who is CEO of WPP’s global retail practice The Store (EMEA and Asia) and chairman of BrandZ.
“While this is a fast-moving and ongoing story, the report allows us to show the businesses that, having invested in becoming a strong brand, are potentially better able to withstand the current shock. Twenty-two years of BrandZ data analysis consistently confirms that strong brands help their businesses to survive turbulent times."
