State banks shed bureaucratic attitude

Against a backdrop of a volatile business environment, Brand Finance Lanka has published its annual leading brand list for the fifth consecutive year, with some dramatic shifts in the line up of the most valuable brands in the country.

In releasing its listing which is now published in Media Service's (publisher of LMD) latest publication the "Brands Annual", the Managing Director of Brand Finance Lanka Ruchi Gunewardene said "brands are built on the foundation of confidence, and in this context, the 2009 brand value line up is significantly different to previous years. Remarkably, we find two Government institutions heading the brand valuation table with BOC and Peoples Bank, displacing Dialog from being Sri Lanka's most valuable brand. And, yet another state bank, NSB is within the top 10 at number 8".

Financial crisis

While the focus of the financial crisis has thus far been on financial and tangible assets, it logically must lead to a decline in intangible assets too, as consumers lose faith in brands, retrenchment demoralises human resources, declining volumes leading to conflict in supply chain management, and intellectual capital looks for greener pastures.

Brand Marketers, who are challenged to make their mark in corporate boardrooms at the best of times, will be under even great pressure to justify their worth at a time when CEO's struggling to keep their businesses afloat are more likely to give free reign to their Financial Managers mandated to cut costs, notwithstanding their star role in precipitating the current global crisis.

According to Gunewardene, who justified the ranking, in recent years BOC, Peoples Bank and NSB, have shed their bureaucratic attitude and sharpened their business orientation creating value in the process.

"In the context of market and financial uncertainties, Government backed enterprises provide security to customers. It is ironic that the most developed markets have come full circle, through the forced nationalisation of banks to prop up those failing enterprises" said Gunewardene.

Brand strengths

In the Brand Rating table, which assess the strength of the brand, Singer is seen right at the top for the fifth consecutive year, which it has held since the inception of this survey, followed by Cargills Food City.

This year listing provides a much more comprehensive picture of the Sri Lankan brand landscape with the publishing of a third table, the Private (or Unlisted) brands which is headed by Panadol with Sunlight in second position.

Unilever has 3 brands in the top 10, with a list that is dominated by multinationals, indicative of the gap that Sri Lankan brands have to bridge. Brand Finance Lanka is a part of the Brand Finance network, which is a brand valuation and strategy company headquartered in UK.

The Brands Annual is being distributed by Media Services and will be available at all leading bookstores and supermarkets in the week ahead.