China has 48 of the World's 500 Most Influential Brands, ranking third overall, behind the United States with 193 and France with 49, according to a new list.
The top-ranked Chinese brands were electric utility State Grid Corporation of China at 20th, internet titan Tencent Holdings at 34th, home appliance giant Haier Group at 35th, and tech behemoth Huawei Technologies at 56th, according to a list released by the World Brand Lab on Dec. 13.
Microsoft took the first sport this year, surpassing Apple, which ended up second, while Amazon secured the third position on the list, compiled by the World Brand Lab since 2003. Some 80,000 major global brands are examined based on three key indicators: market share, brand loyalty, and global leadership.
"Brands should not directly address global conflicts but leverage creators and influencers for branding," said John Deighton, emeritus professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. "Given China's lead over America in creator marketing, this branding approach should be appealing to Asian marketers."
Other Chinese brands on the list included state-owned conglomerate China Resources Holdings, China Life Insurance, liquor maker Yibin Wuliangye Group, China Southern Power Grid, leading beer maker Tsingtao Brewery, state-owned industrial giant Sinochem, petrochemical titan Hengli Petrochemical, and Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, better known as XCMG.
Of the 25 brands newly added to the list, six were Chinese: builder Poly Developments & Holdings Group, TikTok, the short video platform owned by China's ByteDance, state power development giant China Huadian, the world's largest producer of solar silicon Tongwei Group, jet fuel supplier China National Aviation Fuel, and down jacket maker Bosideng International Holdings.
The ranking covers 47 industries, with the food and beverage sector having the most entries with 35 brands, followed by the auto industry with 32 brands. "With the global rise of an aging population, there is promising potential for sustainable growth in pharmaceutical and health brands," the World Brand Lab noted.
The brands included in the list were established on average 98.57 years ago, compared with an average age of 98.22 a year earlier. Of the Chinese brands, leading liquor maker Kweichow Moutai, Tsingtao, Wuliangye, Bank of China, and multinational insurer AIA Group have surpassed the century mark.
Mastering uncertainty is essential for future chief executive officers, noted Haisen Ding, CEO of the World Executive Group and the World Brand Lab. For chief marketing or chief business officers, leveraging artificial intelligence is crucial for continuous global monitoring of brand footprint, he added.
Initially chaired by Robert Mundell, the 1999 Nobel laureate in Economics, premier brand consulting firm World Brand Lab is owned by the World Executive.
（Picture: Veer）
