Seven of the top 500 U.S. brands in terms of value are headquartered in Northeast Ohio: Sherwin-Williams, Progressive, Eaton, FirstEnergy, Folgers, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, and KeyBank.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Buckeye State is home to 23 billion-dollar brands collectively worth more than $71.5 billion, according to global brand consultancy Brand Finance.
And seven of the top 500 U.S. brands in terms of value are headquartered here in Northeast Ohio: Sherwin-Williams, Progressive, Eaton, FirstEnergy, Folgers, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, and KeyBank.
Brand Finance, based in London, ranks brands in the U.S., Canada and other countries by brand value using the "Royal Relief method," which calculates how much of a royalty premium a company would have to pay to acquire its own brand.
"Imagine you're selling a hat without any logo or trademark on it. Now imagine selling one with a Ferrari logo," said Donghee Kim, Brand Finance's marketing and business development director, from Toronto. "The price difference between these two hats would effectively be the royalty attributable to the brand."
Brand Finance measures a brand's strength using criteria such as awareness, loyalty, emotional connection, market share, and marketing spend, as measured by third-party data sources like Bloomberg, CSRHub and BAV (BrandAsset Valuator database).
"Once we determine the royalty rate, we use it to derive the net present value (NPV) of the estimated future revenue generated from the brand -- which would be the brand value," Kim said.
The company seeks to spotlight the importance of brands, underscore how they impact the business, and help companies "identify the value of the intangible" for transactions like acquisitions, he said.
By far one of the nation's most potent brands is Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co., a consumer goods powerhouse that appears at No. 189 as well as under its many household products such as Pampers, Pantene, Olay, Tide/Ariel (the Indian version of Tide), Head & Shoulders, and Oral-B.
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Sherwin-Williams is the fourth most valuable brand in Ohio, and No. 91 billion-dollar brand nationwide, according to Brand Finance's U.S.A. rankings. Some brands, such as Victoria's Secret and Folgers Coffee, are more powerful stand-alone brands than their parent companies, L Brands Inc., and J.M. Smucker, respectively. And Ohio's list is one-third retailers -- from Macy's, Kroger, and Sherwin-Williams to Big Lots.
Macy's, the top-ranked brand name in Ohio, said it was unaware of Brand Finance's ranking and had no comment. Macy's has 8,000 employees in Ohio who work in 33 stores statewide.
Sherwin-Williams' spokesman Mike Conway said: "This recognition is another example of the terrific value our dedicated associates bring to their jobs every day in providing outstanding service to our customers and the best innovative products in the industry."
Sherwin-Williams has 5,000 workers and 189 stores in Ohio, he said.