Branding sums hit dizzy heights – WIPO report
Global companies invested around $466 billion in “branding” during 2011, according to a report published on Thursday by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Investment in brands is stable or falling in high-income countries, the report found, but is rising in middle-income countries like China and India.
The World Intellectual Property Report was published in Geneva ahead of a panel discussion including WIPO director general Francis Gurry.
WIPO, using the latest available data (2011), used “bought in” advertising and market research spending figures to arrive at the $466 billion total, but said the number would be higher with access to other types of data.
These would have included corporate communications and “other bought-in services”, meaning the report’s estimates of brand investment does not completely capture all branding activities.
Based on what it says is more accurate data from the US, the report claimed that total investment is likely to be more than twice the $466 billion estimate and that spending may actually be rising in high-income countries.
WIPO said the report, in its second edition, will allow policy makers to understand the ways in which branding activities interact with the broader economy.
Data on trademarks was also provided, with WIPO finding that trademark applications quadrupled from just under one million a year in 1985 to around 4.2 million in 2011.
Among the high income nations, South Korea led the way, seeing the number of applications rise five-fold in this period. But the results in middle income nations were more striking – in China, for example, total applications increased nearly 30-fold.
The report also compared the brand value of the first 10 companies featuring in Interbrand’s top 100 brands with their market capitalisation. For Apple, which is top of the list, brand value ($98.3 billion) accounted for 58 percent of its market cap, while Google’s (second) figure was 20.7 percent.
Gurry said that while several questions are open, “we hope that this report lays the foundation for additional research in this area and we look forward to addressing remaining knowledge gaps in our future work and in our continuous dialogue with member states”.
The report is available here.
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