The most valuable brands in South Africa have a combined value of $31.6 billion (R600 billion), with FNB being the most valuable brand in South Africa.

According to the latest Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable South African Brands 2023 report, despite the challenging economic environment, Financial Services, Fast Food and Retail brands have been resilient due to their continuous invitation, their ability to attract new customers and their pricing strategies.

The report’s valuation methodology starts with a brand’s financial value (the proportion of a parent company’s dollar value that can be attributed to a particular brand) and is then multiplied by the brand contribution.

The brand contribution is dependent on consumer research and looks at the demand that the brand creates among consumers. Brand demand is determined by salience (coming quickly to mind), difference (being unique against competitors ) and meaning (meeting consumer’s needs in relevant ways and/or building affinity).

FNB was named South Africa’s most valuable brand, with a value of $3.4 billion (R65 billion).

“As South Africa’s oldest bank, FNB continues to successfully reinvent itself, remaining relevant to existing and new customers and maintaining a point of difference over others in the category,” Kantar BrandZ said.

“The first bank to offer consumers the opportunity to switch banks by taking a ‘selfie’ and having won accolades for its mobile app, technology is at the forefront of the brand’s success, with FNB setting the market pace on innovation.”

‘With its focus on innovation and building connections with customers, especially younger people, FNB features high on our Future Power Index, while its work with communities, helping to drive societal change, has seen FNB feature high on our Brand Purpose Index.”

Standard Bank is the second most valuable brand, with a brand value of $3.0 billion (R57 billion).

Mobile networks MTN and Vodacom came in third and fourth with brand values of $2.8 billion (R53 billion) and $2.7 billion (R50 billion), respectively.

Alcohol brand Castle completed the top five, with a brand value of $2 billion (R38 billion).

The ten most valuable brands, according to the report, can be seen below:

Rank 2023	Brand	Category	Brand Value(USD Mil)	Brand Value(ZAR Mil)
1	FNB	Financial Services	$3 402	R65 103
2	Standard Bank	Financial Services	$2 991	R57 237
3	MTN	Telecom Providers	$2 810	R53 774
4	Vodacom	Telecom Providers	$2 651	R50 731
5	Castle	Alcohol	$2 010	R38 464
6	Nando’s	Fast Food	$1 792	R34 292
7	Absa	Financial Services	$1 643	R31 441
8	Woolworths	Retail	$1 198	R22 925
9	Capitec Bank	Financial Services	$1 189	R22 753
10	DStv	Entertainment	$1 166	R22 313

Big boost for banks in South Africa

Despite changing order, the four most valuable brands in the Kantar Brandz report are the same in the Brand Finance South Africa 100 2023 ranking report.

In the Brand Finance report, MTN is the most valuable brand in South Africa, with a brand value of R74.3 billion.

Vodacom is in second place with a brand value of R39.8 billion, while Standard Bank (R29.7 billion) and FNB (R26.1 billion) are in third and fourth places, respectively.

However, Brand Finance said that South Africa’s banks showed impressive growth in 2022, with five banks in the top 10.

It added that the combined value of the 11 banks in the rankings was R146.5 billion – R25 billion more valuable than the second-placed telecoms sector.

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