Leading Brands Outperform MSCI China Index
– Brands are becoming more important to Chinese consumers and businesses
– Technology brands see biggest rise
– Chinese brands strengthen overseas presence
BEIJING, CHINA — The third annual BrandZ? Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands study, commissioned by WPP and undertaken by Millward Brown, is released today. This year’s ranking shows that brands are becoming more important to the Chinese consumer. Despite a challenging economic environment, strong brands outperformed their competitors and the broader stock market.
China is not immune to the global economic environment, and this year the total value of the BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands fell to US$320,224 million, down 1.6 percent on 2012. Despite this, brands continued to grow in importance. The BrandZ Top 50 Brands Portfolio outperformed the MSCI China Index, by 11.4 percent as of September 2012.
This year, China Mobile retains the number one spot in the rankings with a brand value of US$50,589 million. Leading financial institutions also continue to head up the rankings – with ICBC and China Construction Bank in positions two and three respectively.
China’s technology brands have seen tremendous growth, as Chinese consumers spend even more time – and money – on Internet and mobile platforms. Baidu has moved up two positions to number four and Tencent has moved from position 10 to number five.
China’s private sector and entrepreneurs are seeing growing success in building Chinese brands, with the share of non-State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the Top 50 rising to 27 percent from 22 percent in 2011.
David Roth, CEO The Store, WPP said: “As the growth rate of the Chinese economy slows, brands become a more important discriminator of consumer choice. As this study shows, strong brands help Chinese companies grow faster. This is set to accelerate as the Chinese economy rebalances. This, combined with the requirement for more Chinese companies to be successful overseas, will drive the necessity for creating strong Chinese brands as a critical factor for success.”
Adrian Gonzalez, Head of Greater China, Millward Brown said: “Building strong brands domestically is a vital template for the increasing number of Chinese brand owners exploring international markets. This year’s BrandZ Top 50 gives an insight into how an expanding group of privately-owned Chinese brands are growing value by meaningfully differentiating their brands.” (more…)