MTN retain its position as South Africa’s most valuable brand in 2017, valued at R40.8 billion ahead of its rival Vodacom, which came in second and is valued at R25.3 billion and Standard Bank in the third position.
Brand Finance has published a list of the top 50 most valuable brands in the country for 2017. The project is a joint effort between Brand South Africa, Brand Finance, and Brand Africa.
However, according to the report, even the top brands have seen a decrease in value.
Even though MTN was again number one, the telecoms giant has seen over R13-billion shaven off its brand value, compared to 2015.
Brand Finance director Jeremy Sampson, said MTN had had a “pretty torrid time”. It was a pertinent reminder that brands can go up and they can go down”
Currently, in the last year, the top 10 [brands] of South Africa have grown in value by three percent. What did the economy grow by? Plus minus one percent, maybe less.
“Brands are out performing the economy. That is why brands are so important,” Sampson said.
“They provide sales, they act as ambassadors for our country, and they’ve improved by many millions.”
South Africa’s Telkom was ranked number 24 on the list and is valued at R5.7 billion.
Brand Finance calculates the values of the brands in its league tables using the ‘Royalty Relief approach’. This approach involves estimating the likely future sales that are attributable to a brand and calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for the use of the brand, i.e. what the owner would have to pay for the use of the brand — assuming it was not already owned.
Brand Africa and Brand Finance chairman Thebe Ikalafeng noted how in the work Brand Africa has done, only 17 of the top 100 brands on the continent are African.
“It is to understand the opportunity that faces us as Africans and South Africans,” he said, pointing out how Basotho blankets are being sold in Paris at extremely high prices. The question Ikalafeng asked was: Why did we not do that first?
Mobile phone operator Cell C was ranked number 40 and valued at R2.5 billion.
