The Atlanta-based brand analytics firm Davis Brand Capital has released its sixth annual ranking of the biggest world’s companies managing the brand value the most successfully.

Although their methodologies differ, DBC’s ranking shares a more or less identical goal as Interbrand’s Top 100 Brands—to evaluate «companies’ abilities to successfully manage brand value, competitive performance, innovation strength, company culture and social impact.» The agency compiles and analyzes publicly available data from other industry-leading performance rankings across these five criteria.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Apple tops Davis Brand Capital’s ranking (for the 4th consecutive year) followed by the tech giants Google, Microsoft, IBM and General Electric. Overall, technology leaders dominate the top 25 list and have a combined market capitalization of nearly $2.1 trillion.

The biggest risers of 2014 were the Japanese carmaker Toyota (+7 positions) and the American healthcare company Johnson & Johnson. German automotive companies BMW and Volkswagen also jumped 6 spots up to land at 9 and 13, respectively. The biggest fall was made by AT&T which lost 5 ranking positions from 2013.

Interestingly, many successful consumer brands such as PepsiCo, Nike, Facebook, McDonald’s or Unilever are absent from the ranking. The analytics firm’s founder and CEO Patrick T. Davis comments on this: «Brand is no longer just about the outward story a company wants to share. It now incorporates social responsibility, talent recruitment and intellectual property. Our ranking recognize the leaders across all these areas, not just marketing strength.»