Sri Lanka’s annual review of brands

Brand Finance Lanka Managing Director Ruchi Gunewardene provides a glimpse into Sri Lanka’s most valuable and admired brands published in the Brands Annual

Most valuable brands league table

It’s taken a while coming to Sri Lanka, but Dialog which has been in business for less than 25 years, is setting the pace in the overall rankings by coming in at No. 2 position of the most valuable brands table, behind BOC which has been the No. 1 brand since 2009. We have seen this throughout the world in our Global brand rankings, where new technology brands are taking over from legacy brands and changing the business and brand landscape. 

Dialog’s rise has long been a possibility, with a consistent triple A rating on the Brand Finance Brand Strength Index for many years. This rating has conferred Dialog to be the strongest or most powerful brand on our table for several years. Brand power (which is denoted by the rating, with triple A being the highest), is an indicator that it has the potential to create value in the long term, which is exactly what has happened. Its strong brand has resulted in a continuous increase in brand value, with the top spot not being too far out of reach. 

All banks should beware of Dialog, because it has a much broader agenda beyond its core telecommunications industry and will move more aggressively into financial services sector in the future. It is already deeply entrenched in the cashless transaction services with eZ Cash, which has emerged as the strongest brand in our new e-commerce table.

The other big change on our table is reflected in the split of the insurance industry into general and life insurance businesses, which was a regulatory directive. Henceforth, the two segments will be managed and run as two separate businesses. Several brands have already shed the general insurance business whilst retaining the more profitable life business: Union Assurance, AIA and Asian Alliance (recently rebranded as Softlogic Life). Others are still running both the life and general businesses under a single brand: Sri Lanka Insurance, Ceylinco, Janashakthi, HNB Assurance and Amana Takaful. These businesses will need to take a critical look on their future brand strategies and how they intend to approach these two very different businesses.

The main use of our brand value table is to ascertain the performance of the brand over time, in context of its future value creating potential. The challenge for those in the top 50 is to ensure they maintain that single minded focus on growth by strengthening the brand. This needs to happen through relevant strategies which refines the brands relevance across all customer touch points, and through constant differentiation through innovation. 

The bottom 50 brands on the other hand have much work to do in order to establish themselves in their respective markets through operational excellence and work towards a strategic approach to long term brand building.

Most loved brands table

In our other sector reviews we find Unilever brands dominating the most loved category which encompasses all the leading consumer and service brands in the country. The range of brands they have in personal care, home care, fabric care as well as food and beverage are always able to top each category. This year has seen no exception, with an even better performance with as many as 16 Unilever brands on the list, and significantly most are in the top 50. This is obviously a validation of the structured and systematic processes involved in their brand management system. 

At the top of our table is a core list of brands which trade places between each other over the years. And this year it is the turn of Atlas to top the list for the first time. Besides Atlas, this list of regular brands at the top includes the 2nd placed Dettol, which is followed by Johnson’s Baby at 3rd spot. The other consistent brands on the top of the list include Sunlight, Panadol and Harpic who are all within the top 10 over several years, and are conspicuously multinational brands once again.

Conglomerate brands

In the conglomerate sector, internal branding plays a more important role than external branding. This is because there needs to be a common set of beliefs which influences employee behaviour across the many different businesses that it would own. Shaping this through the brand and defining it in a way that will motivate employees is a key part of building a successful conglomerate that will attract high quality talent. 

The successful ones have institutionalised such systems and built a positive culture either consciously or unconsciously.

For example our top conglomerate John Keells have strong systems that it adopts across all the companies they own. These include common HR practices, values system, sustainability practices, financial reporting all of which puts the foot print of the holding company brand on individual companies. Whether they be home grown companies or acquired, they all have the JKH brand stamped on them, which goes beyond a mere display of the logo.

Exporter brands

An exporters success is fundamentally based on its high standards of products or services that it delivers and its ability to compete with the best companies across the world. Having an established and reputed brand provides stakeholders with a sense of assurance which is another vital element for success. 

Similar to last year, Brandix and MAS head the listing followed by Virtusa and MJF Exports which owns Sri Lanka’s only truly global consumer brand Dilmah. There is a healthy list of IT companies including hSenid and Millenium IT in the top exporter brands. 

Multinational brands

From our research, we know that multinational companies invest heavily in managing their corporate brands. They have long understood the importance that corporate brands have on stakeholders in impacting and influencing performance.

It is no surprise therefore that the long standing, and the largest FMCG company in Sri Lanka, Unilever heads the list of multinational brands, followed by Toyota, Dialog, Nestle and GSK.

e-commerce brands

With the rapid expansion of computers, internet accessibility and smart phones, more and more Sri Lankans are increasingly spending time online; either reading the latest news, interacting with friends or buying products. It would therefore seem to be an opportune time to begin to track these emerging e-commerce brands, although they are still in their nascent stage of development.

The overall scores of these brands are relatively lower than the more established brands, however we could expect to see them rise over the years and the entry of even more diverse and stronger players as e-commerce gets entrenched into the lives of Sri Lankan consumers.

The most widely used e-commerce platforms amongst Sri Lankans are financial transactions, trading (buying and selling) and transportation, led by Dialog’s eZ Cash, Ikman.lk and PickMe.

Value in brands

Whichever commercial sector that brands operate in, the pivotal aspect of the value creation process is building the brand in a manner that will positively engage with the varied stakeholders of that business. If we know what those considerations are, we can help nurture and cement that relationship through a common platform, which is relevant to them all. 

Doing so requires brand management to tease out and identify the key value drivers around which the business should be aligned. Those companies heading the tables have found that key to unlock value.