Overall value of top 50 brands dips 2pc this year: Report

The overall value of top 50 brands in the country witnessed a marginal dip of 2 per cent this year, almost entirely driven by the decline in brand value of state-owned banks, according to a recent study.
However, the brand value of India's top 50 brands has increased by 30 per cent over the last three years, as per the BrandZ study conducted by research agency Millward Brown and commissioned by WPP, which was released here today.
The total value of the country's top 50 brands stood at USD 90.5 billion from USD 92.2 billion in 2015.
"The 2 per cent adjustment is primarily attributable to state-owned banks, which declined 33 per cent in brand value because of loan performance difficulties. With the same state-owned banks removed from the 2015 and 2016 rankings, the value of the India BrandZ Top 50 actually rose 2 per cent year on year," it said.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank topped the rankings for the third consecutive year with a brand value of USD 14.4 billion, following a 15 per cent growth over last year.
Telecom major Airtel and the country's largest lender State Bank of India retained the second and third spot, respectively.

Asian Paints was placed at fourth, followed by ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Hero and Axis Bank in that order.
The list is dominated by banks and financial companies, accounting for 38 per cent of the total value of the top 50 brands.
Retail and aviation brands have entered the top 50 for the first time with Indigo (26) and Jet Airways (36) representing the airline industry while Reliance Retail secured the 50th position.

The study covered 60,000 consumers with over 600 brands across 50 categories in the country.
The study claimed that people who invested in these top 50
brands over a two-year period, would have earned a better return than the ones who invested in Sensex companies.
An investment of USD 1,000 in BrandZ India top 50 companies in 2014 would have yielded USD 1,108, the study claimed. In comparison, the same amount invested in Sensex companies would have returned USD 965.
"The stock portfolio of the BrandZ Top 50 most valuable brands increased 10.8 per cent in value between August 2014 and August 2016, while over the same 24-month period, India's Sensex, a weighted index of 30 stocks on Bombay Stock Exchange, declined 3.5 per cent," the study said.

The number of Indian origin brands increased to 38 in 2016 from 35 in 2014.
"There is a huge potential for Indian brands to become strong regional brands or even global brands. If you look at the top 100 global brands, there is one Indian brand compared to 14-15 Chinese brands. Indian brands are under-represented. In another 5-10 years, we should see a number of Indian brands becoming contenders at global level," The Store WPP Chief Executive Officer for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia David Roth said.
The study noted that consumers are becoming less loyal to brands and the key driver for that is technology.

"Access to the Internet and increased mobile penetration has seen the aspirational gap and purchasing patterns between rural and urban Indians narrowing. Mobile has become an enormous social and demographic equaliser," Kantar Insights South Asia CEO Preeti Reddy said.
"It is changing the consumer-brand relationship. Consumers are empowered and more informed. They are actively participating rather than passively listening and are willing to trade up and select quality over quantity," Reddy added.