The Financial Times yesterday identified the world's top brands, some of which are worth more than $50bn. What gives some brands such extraordinary value?

To anti-capitalists, who view brands with the same enthusiasm as cattle faced with glowing irons, brands are pure corporate mind control. Certainly, some lifestyle products are inseparable from their logos, whether the personal achievement chic of the Nike swoosh to the look-at-me affluence of Louis Vuitton. Even though individual brands come and go, such labels are more valuable than ever because the consumers of the world have more money to spend on them.