Harvey Norman has been walloped in the latest Brand Finance Report with JB Hi Fi, Big W, David Jones and Target outperforming the struggling retailer.The latest study, released today, reveals big brands have shed millions of dollars from the value of their brands last year, with Harvey Norman shedding 20% of their brand value during the past 12 months.

The research that ranks the value of a brand among consumers gives companies insights into their marketing strategy.

The two big standouts in the study were Australia’s two biggest supermarket groups, with Woolworths comfortably maintaining its spot as Australia’s most valuable brand even though it experienced the biggest loss, shedding $504 million to $7.1 billion.

Rival supermarket chain Coles posted the biggest value jump, adding $597 million to $4.7 billion. It is now the third most valuable brand, moving up from fourth place in 2010.

The biggest winners were Origin Energy, gaining 23.4 per cent, Bunning’s, adding 20.3 per cent and Bankwest, gaining 16.5 per cent.

The losers

The biggest losers were Harvey Norman which shed 21.5 per cent, and David Jones, which lost 20.4 per cent. Also losing their way was MLC, NAB’s wealth management division, which lost 25.8 per cent of its brand value, followed by St George and Macquarie Bank.

Qantas is no longer one of the top three losers, but it still shed $108 million in brand value.

Victoria Bitter dropped out this year’s top 30 thanks to South African-English brewer SABMiller’s acquisition of the Foster’s Group.

The combined value of Australia’s top 30 companies was $51 billion. But to put this into perspective, Apple’s value hit US$71 billion in the global ranking, which is 1.4 times the combined value of Australia’s top 30.

Top 30 most valuable Australian brands

1. Woolworths
   2. Telstra
   3. Coles
   4. Commonwealth Bank
   5. nab
   6. Westpac
   7. ANZ
   8. Optus
   9. Macquarie Bank
   10. St.George
   11. QBE
   12. Suncorp
   13. Bunnings
   14. Qantas
   15. AMP
   16. Westfield
   17. Big W
   18. Origin
   19. Billabong
   20. MLC
   21. David Jones
   22. Colonial First State
   23. CSL