- For the seventh consecutive year in a row, HDFC Bank was ranked as India’s top brand in the 2020 BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands list, released by WPP and Kantar on Friday.
For the seventh consecutive year in a row, HDFC Bank was ranked as India’s top brand in the 2020 BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands list, released by WPP and Kantar on Friday.
Among the other brands included in the top 10 most valuable brand rankings were LIC, Tata Consultancy Services, Airtel, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Jio, Flipkart, Paytm, and State Bank of India.
The daunting economic and social conditions created in the Indian economy by the global pandemic and a pre-COVID-19 slowdown adversely affected the brand value of Indian companies. “The brand value ranking this year was worth $216 billion, a 6 percent decrease over last year, driven primarily by a downturn in the banking and automotive industry. Despite this, 26 brands increased in value, and five were new entrants. The top brands of India have performed well against other countries where brand value declines were far higher,” the rankings report reported.
The fastest-growing segments were grocery, telecommunication, and personal care products. While retail brands grew by 33 percent, personal care grew by 32 percent, and the telecoms segment grew by 25 percent in terms of brand value growth.
At a time when the retail sector was displaying resilience to meet the changing needs of customers amid the pandemic, Reliance Retail was experiencing a 102% rise in brand value jumping up to 30 positions in the brand rankings to number 25. “During the Covid-19 lockdown, the core food offerings of the brand, as well as its integration with other partners of the Reliance Group, became agile assets for its parent company,” the ranking study said.
Preeti Reddy, CEO-South Asia, Insights Division, Kantar, said: “The success of retail, telecom and FMCG brands has shown that being agile in times of crisis is critical to growth. Brands need to continuously evolve to survive and re-use themselves for the future, or risk being left behind.”
Also this year, brands like Flipkart, D-Mart, and Nestle’s Maggi experienced a huge increase in their brand values. Dove, Indraprastha Gas, Close Up, and Crompton, meanwhile, were among the brands that were featured in the rankings for the first time this year.
Reddy pointed out that brand salience and consumer differentiation have been among the main factors for brands to overcome the present challenges with dwindling wallets due to the pandemic induced economic downturn. “The crisis has been weathered better by trusted brands. There has also been an increase in support for local Indian brands as the feeling of supporting homegrown companies has formed among Indian consumers,” she added.
