According to a survey by global research company Millward Brown, Apple is no longer the world's most valuable brand. In the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2014 Report, Google now ranks as the company with the highest brand value, at $158,843,000. This ranking is based on BrandZ brand valuation methodology that combines consumer research with financial analysis.

The other companies listed among the top 10 include:

Are you competing for talent with these companies? During May, there were about 66,000 job ads posted by these companies, combined, according to data from WANTED Analytics. McDonald's, AT&T, and Amazon.com had the highest number of job ads. The jobs most commonly advertised by these companies were:

• Software Developers, Applications
• Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Fast Food
• Retail Salespersons
• First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers
• Marketing Managers
• First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers
• Information Technology Project Managers
• Network and Computer Systems Administrators
• Computer User Support Specialists
• Sales Representatives

Most of the jobs listed above are considered hard-to-fill. With difficult recruiting conditions likely, how do you compete with well-known, successful, and highly regarded brands? Some things you can consider are compensation, benefits, and opportunities. You can also reduce recruiting difficulty by looking in areas that have larger candidate supplies and less challenging recruiting conditions, or in areas where these companies aren't currently competing for talent. For instance, Marketing Managers score a 90 on our Hiring Scale indicating that this job is very difficult to recruit. Our Hiring Scale ranges from 1 to 99, with 99 denoting hardest-to-fill. If you know you are recruiting against these companies in your area, you may want to consider sourcing Marketing Managers in Hickory, NC, which currently presents the least difficult recruiting conditions, scoring a 51 on our Hiring Scale. While this doesn't mean recruiting is likely to be easy, it may be less challenging here. 

Hiring Scale Score for Marketing Managers in Hickory, NC

Source: WANTED Analytics

Alternatively, you can look to colleges and universities with the most graduating students in your required field of study. As of 2013, about 37,600 candidates graduated with training in marketing. A similar number will be entering the workforce this year. University of Phoenix (Online) and University of Central Florida had the highest number of graduates in marketing. You can reach out to these or educational institutions in your area to set up training or recruitment programs. By establishing your employer brand at these colleges and universities you can become more familiar to candidates, which may encourage graduates to take a position with your company rather than the competition.

Marketing Manager Graduate Candidate Supply

Source: WANTED Analytics

You can also examine advertised salaries that these and similar companies include in their job ads to find out what your competition is using to attract candidates. Is your salary comparable? Keep in mind that not all employers include salaries in their job listings. Some businesses use an advertised salary as a way to attract candidates to apply. This is not necessarily the agreed upon value between employer and employee. For instance, if you're also competing with Google for a Social Media Marketing Manager position in California, our WANTED salary estimates that on average the advertised salary for this job is about $103,000. If you're competing in this location, you can advertise or offer a higher value to attract candidates to your position. If you're from outside this area, you may be able to persuade a candidate to relocate with higher earnings potential in your market.

Market Salary for Social Media Marketing Manager in CA

Source: WANTED Analytics

What do you do to stand out among your competition? Let us know in the comments.