GTBank emerges Most Admired Bank in Africa – Geopoll

By The Citizen
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Brand Africa today released the annual Brand Africa 100:  Africa's Best Brands - an annual survey and valuation of the Top 100 brands in Africa.

In the financial services category, Nigeria's GTB Bank leads the overall rankings in Africa.

GeoPoll used their sophisticated mobile SMS technology to identify the most admired brands in Africa among a representative sample of African consumers in 19 African countries.  These countries collectively represent an estimated 74% of Africa's population.

Despite its recent crisis with its Galaxy Note 7 model, which notably was never launched in Africa, Samsung takes the #1 spot as the Most Admired Brand in Africa, displacing perennial leader MTN. However, MTN has retained its ranking as the Most Admired African Brand despite challenges particularly in Nigeria, which have knocked some shine off Africa's leading brand.

As recently reported in the annual Brand Finance 500, Google, which is valued at $109bn globally, has displaced Apple as the Most Valuable Brand in Africa.  MTN, valued at $2,975m, retains its position as the Most Valuable African Brand, with a 13% rise y/y following a 36% decline in the 2014/5 rankings.

Non-African brands have entrenched their positions in Africa, growing their share of the Top 100 Admired brands from 77% in 2014/5 to 84% in 2016/7.  In a country by country review, non-African brands rank the Top 3 brands in every market, except for Nigeria (with Glo at #3), Kenya (with Safaricom/Mpesa #2 and Tusker #3) and Tanzania (with Azam #2).  Samsung is the #1 brand in 8 countries, Nike in 4 countries, Coke in 3 countries, Adidas in 3 countries and Airtel in one country.  Non-African brands represent 99.25% share of the value of the Top 100 Valuable brands in Africa.

Among the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa, Europe leads all regions with 42/100, followed by North America (25/100), Asia (17/100) and Africa (16/100).

The United States leads the top countries of origin with 25/100, followed by the UK (8/100), Japan (6/100), Germany (6/100), South Africa (6/100), France (5/100) and China (5/100), Italy (4/100), Nigeria (3/100), Ireland (3/100), Netherlands (3/100) and Spain (3/100).

The Top 100 Admired brands are distributed among 11 categories across apparel (19%), consumers (13%), electronics (13%), telecommunications (12%), auto manufacturers (11%), alcoholic beverages (10%), food (6%), non-alcoholic beverages (5%), media (4%), sports & fitness (4&),retail (2%) and cosmetics (1%).

Between the 2014/5 and 2016/7 survey periods, a majority of the leading brands have retained their presence in the Top 100, with 31 new brands, notably South Africa's Shoprite and Pick n Pay, Moroccos's Marwa, Ethiopia's Anbessa Shoes and Nigeria's Lady Care, entering the Top 100 in 2016/7 compared to 34 between 2014/5.  A resurgent Lacoste (+52) made the most gains on the table and Levi's (-68) lost the most ground.

Because of the categories transformational impact in Africa, Brand Africa also conducted a separate parallel survey to determine the Most Admired Brands in Media and the Most Admired Brands in Financial Services.  In the financial services category, Nigeria's GTB Bank leads the overall rankings in Africa and Barclays retains its position as the number 1 non-African financial services brand.  In the media category, BBC and DSTV retain their positions as the top non-African and African media brands respectively.

'These rankings are an important metric of the progress Africa is making in creating competitive world-class brands that respond to African conditions, needs and ambitions,' says Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Chairman of Brand Finance Africa.  'It is a great concern that the share of African brands is so low and even declining. African entrepreneurs ought to know their consumers better than anyone.  It is a wake- up call for African governments to create enabling environments to support these entrepreneurs to build Made in Africa brands which in turn will enable the governments to fund and drive their own development agenda.'

Brand Africa 100 was developed by pan-African branding and reputation advisory firm, Brand Leadership Group supported by Kantar TNS the globally respected consumer knowledge and information company, GeoPoll, the leading mobile survey platform with a database of over 300m users in emerging markets and Brand Finance, the world's leading independent valuation consultancy.

Brand Africa 100 is a two-phase process that starts with a comprehensive consumer research across 19 countries in Africa to establish a consumer generated list of admired brands.  These 100 most admired brands are then valued and re-ranked according to value by Brand Finance.

GeoPoll used their sophisticated mobile SMS technology to identify the most admired brands in Africa among a representative sample of African consumers in 19 African countries.  These countries collectively represent an estimated 74% of Africa's population.

'Because of its high penetration across Africa, the mobile phone is a valuable tool in its ability to collect data from diverse geographical areas. GeoPoll's method of collecting data through mobile surveys demonstrates the power and reach of mobile technology in its delivery of real-time, actionable data' says Steve Gutterman, CEO - GeoPoll.

Kantar TNS then collated this vast dataset and analysed the data to create a weighted consumer admiration score that reduced over 11,000 brand mentions to the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa.  With such diverse populations between countries and regions, the weighted index ensured the results are representative of the population within each country and Africa overall to reflect a unique ranking of the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa.

''Success for brands is about establishing an emotional connection, creating intimacy and being more present in consumers everyday lives.  This survey is a timely assessment of the various brands that play a vital role in Africa,' says Karin Du Chenne Kantar TNS Chief Client Officer Africa Middle East

In conclusion Brand Finance used the royalty relief methodology which is compliant with International Valuation Standards Authority as a basis for determining the fair market value of brands to establish the Top 100 Most Valuable Brands.

“African brands have an important role in helping to build the African continent,' concluded Oliver Schmitz, Managing Director – Brand Finance Africa. 'As Africa builds competitive and valuable brands it helps to tell a positive story of the continent.'

The Brand Africa 100 results will be published in African Business on sale globally from 3 March 2017 and online to subscribers on www.africanbusinessmag.com and www.brandafrica.org .

BRAND AFRICA
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Brand Africa is a non-profit intergenerational movement to inspire a great Africa through creating a positive image of Africa, celebrating its diversity and driving its competitiveness.

Brand Africa mobilises African and diaspora decision makers, thought leaders, influencers and future leaders to engage with, shape and drive an African agenda catalytic for creating an enabling environment for driving Africa's growth, reputation, competitiveness and unity.

Brand Africa is an independent Non-Profit Organisation registered in the Republic of South Africa (NPC 2013/146300/08) and a signatory to the Independent Code of Governance for Non-Profit Organisations in Africa ( www.governance.org.za ).

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BA 100 PARTNERS
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Brand Leadership
Brand Leadership is a pan-African brand development, activation and measurement firm and a strategic partner for global and African decision-makers and brand builders interested in and/or invested in Africa.  Established in 2002, Brand Leadership has over the years delivered brand-led solutions that respond to African conditions, needs and ambitions for over 100 African and non-African brands in Africa across diverse industries and markets in the private and public sectors.  www.brandleadership.com

 
Kantar TNS
Kantar TNS advises clients on specific growth strategies around new market entry, innovation, brand switching and stakeholder management, based on long -established expertise and market -leading solutions. With a presence in over 80 countries, Kantar TNS has more conversations with the world's consumers than anyone else and understands individual human behaviour and attitudes across cultural, economic and political regions of the world. Kantar TNS is part of the Kantar group, one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy groups, with 28,500 employees across 100 countries encompassing the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. www.kantar.com

 
GeoPoll
GeoPoll is the world's largest mobile survey platform, with a network of over 300 million users in Africa, Asia and Middle East. By asking people questions on their mobile phones without the need for data plans or internet access, GeoPoll is able to help customers understand trends, preferences, and conditions in countries where data has traditionally been difficult and expensive to obtain.

Through their relationships with Mobile Network Operators, GeoPoll connects researchers directly to their audiences, making it faster and more cost effective than any other method of data collection. GeoPoll’s multi-modal platform administers remote surveys through SMS, voice, or mobile web, and delivers results in near real-time, giving anyone the ability to make data-driven decisions.

GeoPoll works with Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organisations, and governments to provide insights on everything from food security to brand preference. Their services include both custom research and subscription data products which deliver daily data on media measurement, fast-moving-consumer-goods tracking, and more.

GeoPoll is a division of Mobile Accord Inc., a mobile platform company powering communication for social good. Mobile Accord’s products and services empower major non-profit, organizations, universities and government entities to benefit from the power of mobile technology.

www.geopoll.com
Brand Finance is the world's leading brand valuation consultancy. Brand Finance advises strongly branded organisations on how to maximise their value through the effective management of their brands and intangible assets.  Brand Finance has conducted thousands of brand valuations for clients of all sizes and across most sectors. Brand Finance's clients include international brand owners, tax authorities, lawyers, government bodies and investment banks. Brand Finance publishes Global 500 - the world's most valuable brands and Global Nation Brands 100 - the most valuable nation brands leagues as well as regional tables in all regions annually. www.brandfinance.com