January 23, 2020
The Ferrari F8 Tributo. Image credit: Ferrari
Italian sports car maker Ferrari retained pole position as the world’s strongest brand for the second year in a row, according to Brand Finance.
The brand scored 94.1 out of 100 and elite AAA+ rating in Brand Finance’s Brand Strength Index, beating out 500 leading brands worldwide.
“The embodiment of luxury, Ferrari continues to be admired and desired around the world, and its outstanding brand strength reflects this,” said David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, London.
“It is no wonder that many consumers, who might never own a Ferrari car, want a bag or a watch emblazoned with the Prancing Horse, but it is also crucial that the company management remain at the steering wheel of the brand’s future and maintain its exclusive positioning by monitoring the licensing output closely,” he said.
Race to the top
Brand Finance gauges the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity and business performance.
Based on these criteria, Ferrari was the strongest of only 12 brands in the Brand Finance Global 500 2020 ranking to have won the highest AAA+ rating.
Brand strength is a crucial driver of brand value along with revenue forecasts.
As Ferrari’s brand strength maintained its rating, its brand value grew, improving 9 percent to $9.1 billion, per Brand Finance.
Ferrari last year named five new models, including the SF90 Stradale and Ferrari Roma, both aimed at new market segments.
The automaker also inked a manufacturing deal with the Giorgio Armani Group to help push Ferrari collections.
Overall, Amazon made history as first brand to exceed $200 billion in value, retaining Brand Finance’s title of the world’s most valuable brand for the third consecutive year.
Luxury among world’s 500 most valuable brands
In terms of luxury brands among the world’s 500 most valuable brands, the usual suspects made the cut:
Mercedes-Benz 11 in 2020, up from 13 last year
BMW 30, down from 29
Porsche 41, up from 47
Gucci 99, up from 118
Louis Vuitton 110, up from 127
Cartier 123, up from 126
Chanel 136, up from 152
Hermès 154, up from 165
L’Oréal 157, up from 178
Sephora 170, up from 195
Lexus 200, down from 190
Ferrari 206, up from 220
Land Rover 259, down from 202
Estée Lauder 331, up from 413
Tiffany & Co. 343, up from 350
Guerlain 366, up from 404
Burberry 421, up from 433
Ralph Lauren 479, down from 469
Nordstrom 488, down from 439
World’s second-best brand guardian and world’s second-most reputable CEO
Bernard Arnault, boss of LVMH, made the cut as the world’s second-best brand guardian and second-most reputable CEO.
Mr. Arnault’s scored 72.1, up from 68.4 and one spot up. He narrowly missed the No. 1 ranking, being just 0.1 below the top spot given to Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin, who scored 72.2 and was new to the list.
Bernard Arnault is Luxury Daily's 2019 Luxury Personality of the Year. Image credit: LVMH
At 30 years, Mr. Arnault was the longest-serving CEO on the Brand Finance list.
Fellow luxury brands’ CEOs also made the list of 100 best brand guardians:
François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Kering, was 12 and new to the list
Fabrizio Freda, CEO, Estée Lauder, 17, up from 19
Alain Wertheimer, CEO, Chanel, 24, new to list
Axel Dumas, CEO of Hermès, 63, down from 61
Jerome Lambert, CEO of Richemont, 97, new to list
Please click here to download the PDF preview of Brand Finance's Global 500 rankings for 2020
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