Samsung chief presides over $20bn boost in brand value

The BrandFinance Global 500 survey claims a combination of advertising and marketing investment in support of research and development (R&D) and new product launches helped Samsung increase its brand value by 54% from $38.2bn to $58.7bn.

Oh-Hyun was officially appointed chief executive on June 8, 2012, having previously held the position of vice chairman since December 2011.

Arch-rival Apple came in second in the survey with Steve Jobs successor Tim Cook guiding the company to a $16.7bn increase in value for the year ending 31 December 2012, which valued the company at $87.3bn.

David Haigh, chief executive of brand valuation agency Brand Finance, said: "It is now widely accepted that the CEO is the ultimate custodian of brand and reputation and they are increasingly focussing on ways of building brand strength and value.

"Steve Jobs was an expert in this regard, steering Apple to the top of the BrandFinance Global 500. With his passing, the title of international brandmaster is now very much up for grabs. "

Biggest brand value risers with CEOs
Rank	CEO	Brand	Brand value 2013 (US$bn)	Change (US$bn)
1	Kwon Oh-Hyun	Samsung	58.7	20.5
2	Tim Cook	Apple	87.3	16.7
3	Jeff Bezos	Amazon	36.7	8.1
4	Peter Voser	Shell	29.7	7.7
5	Jiang Chaoliang	Agricultural Bank of China	15.9	6.0
6	Martin Winterkom	Volkswagen	23.6	5.9
7	Fu Chengyu	Sinopec	13.5	5.4
8	Li Yue	China Mobile	23.2	5.3
9	Robert Iger	Walt Disney	20.5	5.1
10	Larry Page	Google	52.1	4.6

Source: BrandFinance Global 500

The survey also tracked the brands that saw the biggest fall in value. Hewlett Packard, led by Meg Whitman, experienced the biggest fall, dropping $5.6bn to $16.1bn.

HP is in the process of pursuing a criminal investigation into its acquisition of Autonomy after writing off $5bn in November as a result of alleged "serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures".

Another big faller was Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, which was floated on the stock market last year. Its value dropped $3.2bn to $5.6bn, according to the research.

 

Biggest brand value fallers with CEOs
Rank	CEO	Brand	Brand value 2013 (US$bn)	Change (US$bn)
1	Meg Whitman	HP	16.1	-5.6
2	Michael Dell	Dell	6.2	-5.4
3	Stuart Gulliver	HSBC	22.8	-4.7
4	Mark Parker	Nike	15.0	-3.6
5	Cesar Alierta	Movistar	11.1	-3.2
6	Mark Zuckerberg	Facebook	5.6	-3.2
7	Vittorio Colao	Vodafone	29.0	-3.0
8	Kazuo Hirai	Sony	9.6	-2.7
9	Sherilyn McCoy	Avon	5.2	-2.7
10	Stephen Hemsley	United Health Care	7.6	-2.3

Source: BrandFinance Global 500

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk