ComBank ranked as ‘Strongest Bank Brand’ in Sri Lanka again

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has once again been recognised as the ‘Strongest Bank Brand’ in the country in 2021 by Brand Finance, one of the world’s leading independent brand valuation consultancies.

Commercial Bank was also named the Strongest Banking Brand in the 2020 ranking, which makes this the second consecutive year the Bank has won this prestigious accolade that speaks to the strength of the brand of the largest private bank in the country, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2020. 

“The past year gave many businesses an opportunity to prove the substance behind their brands as they faced the challenges of the pandemic,” Commercial Bank Managing Director S. Renganathan said. 

“We are delighted that it has once again been proven that our strategic brand building efforts coupled with consistent performance have earned us this prestigious title. Our brand building process is meticulously thought through and involves management and staff at all levels and is focused on ethical and sustainable brand building. Accolades such as these are an encouragement to the ComBank team.”

The Commercial Bank brand secured the overall third pace in ranking of the strongest brands across all sectors in the country. 

Brand Finance computes the value of brands listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange using a method based on the Royalty Relief approach – a brand valuation method used by the company globally. Every year it puts 5,000 of the world’s biggest brands to the test and ranks brands across all sectors and countries and publishes nearly 100 reports.

The seven-step process of arriving at a brand value encompasses calculating brand strength using a balanced scorecard of metrics; assessing stakeholder equity and business performance; determining a royalty range for each industry reflecting the importance of brand to purchasing decisions; calculating the royalty rate; determining brand-specific revenues by estimating a proportion of parent company revenues attributable to a brand; determining forecast revenues; application of the royalty rate to the forecast revenues to derive brand revenues; and discounting brand revenues post-tax to a net present value which equals the brand value. 

Considered one of the world’s leading independent brand evaluation and ratings firms, Brand Finance PLC is headquartered in London and has a network of offices around the world. The Brand Finance rankings for Sri Lanka are published annually by LMD.

One of the most active and vibrant brands in Sri Lanka, Commercial Bank’s brand building efforts maintain a healthy balance between corporate and product communications and ground level customer engagement events. In addition to traditional media, the Bank is highly active in social and digital media and customer engagement events, at national and regional level. The Bank’s strong customer base covers all segments of society, and encompasses all socio economic groups spread across Sri Lanka.

The bank stated that it places heavy emphasis on strategy when formulating marketing plans and brand building activities. Commercial Bank maintains a constant watch over its brand performance and measures it both qualitatively and quantitatively. Parameters such as brand equity and top of mind recall are periodically monitored through research and the key takeouts are considered when marketing campaigns are planned. This strategic approach has helped the brand to evolve through the years and become one of the strongest brands in the country.