India’s top brands: HDFC Bank leads list seventh time in a row

HDFC has topped the WPP-Kantar BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands ranking for the seventh consecutive year. The bank is estimated to have a brand value of $20.3 billion, which, however, is a decline of 11% over last year.

This year’s ranking was worth $216 billion in brand value, a decline of 6% over last year, driven largely by a slowdown in the brand value of companies in the banking and automotive sectors, the report stated.

BFSI brands have dominated the top 10 ranking list this year. Life Insurance Corporation of India retained its position in the ranking at No. 2 with a brand value of $18.3 billion, registering a decline of 9% over 2019. Kotak Mahindra Bank solidified its place in the ranking at No. 6 with a brand value of $7.2 billion and a decline of 6% YoY.

State Bank of India which was ranked No. 5 last year declined by 36% and is now at No. 10, while ICICI Bank which was at No. 10 in 2019 dropped to No. 11 this year with a brand value decline of 11%. Together, banking and insurance brands commanded 31% of the Top 75 ranking.

B2B technology service providers, including brands like TCS (No. 3, -20% y-o-y, $14.6 billion) and Infosys (No.12, -14% y-o-y, $4.5 billion), which was the second largest category in 2019 lost its spot to telecom providers and became the fourth largest category with a total valuation of $22.3 billion.

India’s second-biggest brand sector in 2020, telecom operators, was the fourth-biggest in 2019. This year it grew by a quarter and leaped ahead of both technology and insurance on the category ranking and is estimated to have a brand value of $25 billion. The growth of telecom providers has been attributed to the rise in online gaming and OTT viewership.

Reliance Retail, Zomato, Paytm and Flipkart rose in brand value the most this year. Reliance Retail is now pegged at $2.25 billion, a 102% rise over last year. The largest retailer in India, Reliance Retail, has invested in its digital commerce capabilities, comprising JioMart’s online B2C business and the kirana digitisation programme, with plans to digitise five million kirana stores by 2023.

Some brand categories that gained this year are payments (50%), job portals (34%), and retail (33%). Both Zomato and Paytm grew by about 50% and have a brand value of $1.5 billion and $6.27 billion, respectively. Among the other rises was Jio. The telecom operator which entered the top 10 list at No.9 last year solidified its position in the list at No. 7 this year with an estimated brand value of $6.9 billion. Flipkart’s (No. 8) brand value grew by 40% at $6.5 billion.

Pandemic induced headwinds resulted in entertainment, automobiles, and travel services losing brand value by 68%, 37%, and 32%, respectively. Dove (No. 61), Indraprastha Gas Energy (No. 63), CloseUp (No. 69), Crompton (No. 74) and BSNL (No. 75) were included in the Top 75 list for the first time in 2020.

The BrandZ ranking combines market data from Bloomberg with consumer insights from around 3.8 million consumers globally, covering more than 17,801 different brands in 51 markets – including opinions from over 1.2 lakh Indian consumers on 1,140 brands in 89 categories.