Singaporean brands shrug off the recession with strong brand growth - A Brand Finance Top 100 Singapore Brands Report - 2012

The top 10 Singapore brands continue to dominate

Brand Finance Plc today releases the sixth annual “Top 100 Singapore Brands” league table showing strong growth from the country’s top brands. The Top 10 Singapore Brands have been valued at 19.29 bn US$ in 2012, storming ahead of the remaining 90 brands featured in the leagues that have a total combined value of 36.28 bn US$.

While there was some movement amongst the top 10, two new brands entered the top 10 indicating the stiff competition and vulnerability at the top. Genting at # 4 was not previously featured in the Brand Finance Top 100 Singapore Brands and Tiger Beer at # 10 entered the top 10 for the first time.

Despite the competition from growing brands, the top three brands from 2011 held steady retaining their coveted positions.
Singapore Airlines continues to fly high taking the top place for the fourth consecutive year, despite significant brand value decreases of nearly 15% (0.53 bn US$). This decrease has narrowed the gap at the top by a mere 0.12 bn US$ between Singapore Airlines and Wilmar International. Unless some significant steps are taken by Singapore Airlines to arrest the decline of their Enterprise value and make efforts to boost the brand value at the same time, we will likely see a new # 1 brand in 2013 that will displace Singapore Airlines after 4 years.

The overall top riser brand by brand value growth was Olam International, a global commodity player, which saw the unprecedented increase of 247% in their brand value over 2011.The increase enabled them to climb 18 places placing them firmly amongst the top 20. It will be interesting to watch if they are able to maintain their position or slide back next year.

The top three risers by brand value growth amongst the top 10 brands were SingTel (29%), UOB (28%) and OCBC Bank (32%). The banking brands growth is in line with the general trend around the world of financial brands rebounding after the 2008 crisis. However these three brands have achieved a more marked recovery than their western peers because of their proximity to the major and rapidly developing economies.
DBS Bank remained at the number three position increasing its brand value to 2.30 bn US$, a brand value growth of 13% over 2011. It continues to build its brand presence in the three key markets of South East Asia, South Asia and Greater China as it seeks to diversify its revenues away from its home market, through acquisitions and strong regional communication focus. SingTel also kept their number five position with a 28% increase in brand value at 1.73 bn US$. This increase has not only allowed them to maintain their lead over #6 ranked UOB; it has also got them within arm distance to the # 4 position of Genting.

Overall, the two new brands in the top 10 have a combined brand value of 2.92 bn US$.
While the top 10 brands added an impressive 19.29 bn US$ to the combined brand value, the top 3 brands combined value was less than last year, primarily due to Singapore Airlines losing a massive 15% brand value allowing them the # 1 position on yet another aspect – for the biggest decrease of brand value.
Similar to other Asian markets, there is also a sharp contrast in the contribution of the top 10 compared to the next 10 brands (54.26% vs. 21.39%). This clearly indicates the large growth potential available to a majority of the top 50 Singaporean brands. It also indicates the dominance of the top 10 and the benefits of robust brand management at the top.

More change seen in the remaining top 100
The value growth of top 10 in 2012 compared to 2011 is a relatively small number, relatively aligned to an average brand value increase of 21% for the rest of the top 100 brands. Brands ranked 11-20  had a value contribution of 21.39% , 21-30  had a contribution of 9.15%, 31-40  contributed 4.61%, 41-50  had a 3.34% share and the average contribution for the brands ranked 51-100 was at 7.21%).
The brands ranked 51-100 nearly lost some of their brand value (3-4%) indicating weaker brand focus and brand building initiatives beyond the top 50 brands.
As a result of the overall growth, the bottom end of the brand value growth reached a high range of 99-14 mn US$. (Except the last four which were between 9 and 5 mn respectively). This range in 2011 was 51-22 mn US$.
 
Segment Growth
There was evidence of uniform growth across all segments and categories.
– Banks  grew at  20% as against 34% in 2011
– Telecom  had a 30% growth as against 25% in 2011
– Media: While SPH saw an increase of nearly 75%, the overall sector growth was 35%, down from 54% in 2011,
– Real estate: After growing by nearly 400% in 2011, the growth in 2012 was a mere 9%.
– Transport performed well with SBS Transit and Comfort gaining 85% and 49% respectively. The cheers however were not shared by SMRT which had a value reduction of 20% against a 189% increase in 2011. 

– Retail growth had slowed down to 10% from a healthy 60% in 2011.
– Hotels and motels brands continued to grow rapidly at 226% aided by the Genting’s entry at # 5 with a brand value contribution of nearly 65%.
– Engineering and construction:  Had a slight decrease of 1%.
– Foods & Agriculture: Saw a healthy increase of 73% owing to a strong performance by Olam