BrandZ: Chinese Brands Bring Value in and out of Asia

What Chinese brands will you soon be buying?

The latest findings in the BrandZ Most Valuable Chinese Brands and BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders report, published in March and February, respectively, illustrate how the country is increasingly raising its profile around the world and bringing IP, goods and services made in China to retail shelves around the world.

According to BrandZ, a study compiled by WPP and Kantar Millward Brown, the top 100 most valuable Chinese brands grew 23 percent in value in 2018, to a total valuation of $683.9 billion. In contrast, last year, that rise was only 6 percent. Of these top 100 brands, 60 percent are market-driven brands, while the other 40 percent are state owned enterprises.

The top 10 Chinese brands are:

Tencent again leads BrandZ's study–this is the fourth consecutive year the brand has ranked as No. 1, capitalizing on a 25 percent lift this year with a brand valuation of $132.2 billion. The diversity of brands in the top 10 is also interesting–three are technology companies (Tencent, Bai Du and Huawei), three are banks (ICBC, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China) and four are other (Alibaba is retail, China Mobile is a telecom company, Moutai is an alcohol brand and PingAn is an insurance company).

"We believe that the conditions for future brand value growth in China are extremely positive. Incomes are rising and awareness of brands is increasing throughout the country in a market that is more receptive to fair competition. For us, the fundamental question is not whether brand values will increase, but rather what brand initiatives will most effectively accelerate that rise," says David Roth, chief executive officer, The Store WPP, and chairman, BAV Group.

In further data compiled by WPP, Kantar Millward Brown and Google, brands across 12 product categories were ranked based on their "brand power score" in seven markets–France, Germany, Spain, the U.K., the U.S., Australia and Japan.

The top five brands that have the most impact overseas are:

This year's list grew by 20 brands (50 in total) and is due in part to the respective companies' focus on global expansion.

Both reports also underscore that many of brands have utilized President Xi Jinping's 2013 Silk Road Economic Belt initiative of globalization.

"The companies behind China's brands are taking a more active role on the world stage," says Roth. "They are increasingly shaping the conversation at a category level, as well as helping to support economic growth in developing markets in many ways, not least by investing in infrastructure. China's brands are not only changing the way that people around the world think about brands, they are also changing the way those people think about Brand China."