Brand Finance Lanka, the pioneering brand valuation and strategy firm, released its 16th consecutive review of Sri Lanka’s most valuable and strongest brands in LMD’s Brands Annual.
Dialog’s rise to the top of the table has long been a possibility. This is because for 7 consecutive years, Dialog has been the strongest brand with a AAA rating. Brand value had therefore been systematically built to eventually take the No. 1 slot.
Commenting on the significance of this, Ruchi Gunewardene, Managing Director of Brand Finance Lanka said “this is a signal which recognizes the first wave of change that we foresee which is in line with global trends.”.
The rise of technology brands is seen in the Brand Finance Global 500 where the top 5 positions are Amazon followed by Apple, Google, Samsung and Facebook in that order. These brands have overtaken the old legacy brands such as Coca-Cola, Citibank, Walmart, Toyota, HSBC and GE amongst others, dramatically changing the business and brand landscape within a short period of 10 years.
BOC the No. 2 brand on the list has also performed creditably, with a growth of 21% and exceeding the Rs. 50 billion value mark with a brand value of Rs. 51.9 billion, setting a new benchmark for the banking sector.
Gunewardene said “based on this year’s analysis, our view is that brands have adopted two types of strategies that isdriving brand value. One is long term strategic brand building as opposed to tactical or ad hoc communication and promotion campaigns. The other is to holistically embrace technology, not as an add-on to engage with younger consumers, but as a total transformative process. There are a few brands who have found this sweet spot and are rapidly moving up the index”. Dialog has been the model of branding excellence. It has adopted both the strategies of brand excellence and technology adoption to get to the top. Being a tech company it has no transformation to undergo. It has on the other hand been on a long journey of brand building having had AAA ratings for a long period.
Whilst most bank brands have shown good growth in value this year, there is a definitive trend towards the smaller more nimble brands rapidly catching up with the established ones. The biggest threat to the large private sector banks come from Sampath Bank, which jumped one spot from No. 8 to No. 7 rank on the index, with a massive brand value increase of 33%.
This was a year in which the smaller bank brands performed well. Nations Trust, DFCC, Seylan and NDB are the fastest growing brands in this sector.
The small size provides them with the agility which the larger banks do not have. Keells with a smaller number of retail stores overtook Cargills Food City by recording a higher brand value this year to take the coveted most valuable supermarket brand. Keells recorded a 52% increase in brand value, which enabled it to surpass its competitor.
Keells opted to make a dramatic rebranding changewhere it got rid of the red and smiley faced identity, to one that is green dominated around the proposition of freshness.
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