I’ve seen lists of retailers based on sales, number of employees, revenue growth, square footage, customer traffic… I could go on, but I’ve seen a lot of lists and this is a blog, not a book.
This week, however, I got to add to my list of lists. I saw a new (new to me at least) way to categorize U.S. retailers. Interbrand Design Forum’s list cataloged the 50 most valuable U.S. retail brands. In the session, Brands that Have the Power to Change the Retail World, Lee Carpenter and Alfred DuPuy presented the list, discussing why various retailers were on (or off) the list. Their study only included retailers who are public (so they could analyze the financials) and they excluded restaurants.
I’d like to share their methodology for calculating a brand’s value, but I couldn’t write fast enough sitting in the audience and they do a good job of explaining it themselves in the report – which you can read in its entirety here.
Here are a few things I found interesting about various retailers on the list:
- Whole Foods, with a brand value of $496 million, is the only grocery retailer in the top 50.
- American Girl, despite having only 7 retail locations, has a brand value of $641 million
- Netflix, with a brand value of $1.268 billion, is one of the few exclusively online retailers on the list.
- Staples is the only office supplies retailer on the list. Lee cited what they’ve done with their private label products as one reason their brand makes the cut. Their brand value is listed as $7.224 billion.
To see the rankings and brand value of the top 50 retail brands, view The Most Valuable U.S. Retail Brands 2009.