DStv in African top spot as Mukwano gets 7th

March 6, 2017 in Business, Companies, Trade & Industry by Editor

March 6–Africa’s top most admired non-African and African media brands are Britain’s BBC and DStv respectively according to the latest Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands survey which also ranked Uganda’s Mukwano as the 7th Most Admired African Brand.

DStv is MultiChoice’s digital satellite TV service in Africa. It was launched in 1995 and today provides various bouquets offering general entertainment, movies, lifestyle, culture, sports, documentaries, news and special programming according to relevant regional tastes. Mukwano is Uganda’s biggest manufacturer of fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs).

“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,” said Thebe Ikalafeng, the Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Chairman of Brand Finance Africa.

 

Pollsters, GeoPoll, used a 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 top 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 $109 billion globally, has displaced Apple as the Most Valuable Brand in Africa.  MTN, valued at $2.97 billion, retains its position as the Most Valuable African Brand, with a 13% rise year-on-year 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 No. 3), Kenya (with Safaricom/Mpesa No. 2 and Tusker No. 3) and Tanzania (with Azam No. 2).

Samsung is the No. 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.

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 one non-African financial services brand.

“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,” said Thebe Ikalafeng, the Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Chairman of Brand Finance Africa.

He said,  “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 300 million users in emerging markets and Brand Finance, the world’s leading independent valuation consultancy.

Steve Gutterman,  the CEO of GeoPoll said, “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.”

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.