State banks endure as the most valuable brands:

Brand Finance Lanka releases listing in ‘Brands Annual’

Brand Finance Lanka has published its annual leading brand list for the fifth consecutive year, with some dramatic shifts in the line up of the most valuable brands in the country.

In releasing its listing which is now published in Media Service’s (publisher of LMD) latest publication the Brands Annual, the company in a media release, said that the future of business is uncertain because of the dramatic decline in the underlying value of tangible and intangible assets.

While the focus of the crisis globally and locally has thus far been on financial and tangible assets, it logically must lead to a decline in intangible assets too, as consumers lose faith in brands, retrenchment demoralises human resources, declining volumes lead to conflict in supply chain management and intellectual capital looks for greener pastures.

Brand Marketers, who are challenged to make their mark in corporate boardrooms at the best of times, will be under even great pressure to justify their worth at a time when CEOs struggling to keep their businesses afloat are more likely to give free reign to their Financial Managers mandated to cut costs, notwithstanding their star role in precipitating the current crisis.

Brands are built on the foundation of confidence, and in this context, the 2009 brand value line up is significantly different to previous years. Remarkably, we find two Government institutions heading the brand valuation table with BoC and People’s Bank, displacing Dialog from being Sri Lanka’s most valuable brands. And, yet another state bank, NSB is within the top 10 at number 8.

In recent years BOC, People’s Bank and NSB, have shed their Government bureaucracy and sharpened their business orientation through managing costs, more prudent lending policies and acquiring skills in brand management and marketing, thus leveraging their extensive reach and building brand equity to accelerate the growth of these huge enterprises, creating immense value in the process.

In the context of market and financial uncertainties, Government backed enterprises provide security to customers. It is ironic that the most developed markets have come full circle, through the forced nationalization of banks to prop up those failing enterprises.

It is now evident that having a balanced regulatory framework is absolutely essential for creating the right business platform. The absence of that regulatory framework and its repercussions can be seen in the crisis of confidence currently being faced by Sri Lankan finance companies.

In the Brand Rating table, which assess the strength of the brand, Singer is right at the top for the fifth consecutive year with an AA+ rating, followed by Cargills Food City, also with an AA+ rating. Whilst the resilience of Singer to hang on to the top spot can be admired, there is pressure on them to step up their performance to continue to be there in the future, in the light of these dramatically changing market conditions and consumer expectations.

This year’s listing provides a much more comprehensive picture of the Sri Lankan brand landscape with the publishing of a third table, the Private (or Unlisted) brands which is headed by Panadol with Sunlight in second position. This list is dominated by multi-nationals, indicative of the gap that Sri Lankan brands have to bridge.

The tables are based on publicly available information supplemented by independent market research data and the analysis provides what could be considered the most comprehensive picture of the brand landscape of this country.

Brand Finance Lanka is a part of the Brand Finance network, which is a brand valuation and strategy company headquartered in UK.