At first glance, global brands are in robust health, with the top 100 rising in combined value to $4.7tn and US technology companies led by Amazon, Apple and Google spanning the globe. But there has rarely been more to worry those who own and invest in consumer brands.
The most unsettling event this year for branded goods companies and marketers was the $15.4bn impairment of Kraft Heinz assets in February. Reliable US Kraft food and drink brands such as Velveeta and Kool-Aid turned out to have little appeal to those who are not American baby boomers.
This is not to say that US consumer brands are fading; quite the opposite to judge by the 2019 list. Generation Z brands such as Netflix and Instagram, founded in 1997 and 2010 respectively, leapt up the ranking, while Google and Facebook continue to occupy the top 10.