ICICI: 45th most valuable brand in the world

India's leading private sector lender ICICI Bank has ranked 45 among the 100 most valuable brands in the world, a list that has been topped by Google.

"With a brand value of $14.5 billion, the Indian bank ICICI is the first Indian brand to feature in the BrandZ Top 100.

"ICICI is the bank that introduced retail banking to India and stands to profit from the country's continuing growth," according to the fifth annual Millward Brown Optimor BrandZ Top100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2010 list.

It said ICICI pioneered ATMs in India to provide wide access to banking and to help flatten the society's hierarchical structure.

Separately, ICICI, which now operates almost 5,000 ATMs in India and is present in 18 countries, ranked number 10 out of the top 20 financial institution brands.

Apart from ICICI, another Indian company, Infosys made its debut in Millward's 'technology category'.

"Outside of the Top 100, Infosys is a second Indian brand, also new this year.

"Originator of the term 'the flat world', Infosys is India's most valuable technology brand and with a brand value of $6.4 billion, is a strong contender to enter the Top 100 ranking soon," it said.

Infosys ranked 18 in the top 20 technology brands category.

Technology brands demonstrated their pervasiveness in people's daily lives, with Google topping the list as the Most Valuable Global Brand with a total worth of $114 billion.

IBM was second at $86 billion, followed by Apple now worth $83 billion.

Microsoft was fourth with a value of $76 billion.

Facebook, the popular social networking site, entered the technology sector ranking for the first year with a brand value of $5.5 billion.

Others companies featuring in the top 10 include Coca Cola, McDonald's, Marlboro, China Mobile, GE and Vodafone.

"When most key financial indicators plummeted, the value of the top 100 brands rose by four per cent in the last year to more than $2 trillion.

"In the past, many companies were quick to cut their marketing spend during a down economy.

"A new trend has emerged in the wake of the recession as more companies realised the importance of maintaining and even increasing budgets to support brand loyalty and engagement," said Joanna Seddon, CEO of Millward Brown Optimor.

Among the top 100 brands are HP (12), Blackberry (14), HSBC (23), BMW (25), Toyota (26), Louis Vuitton (29), ExxonMobil (39), Nokia (43), Honda (46), Pepsi (58), Sony (94) and Gucci (97).