Africa's top 100 brands announced

Brand Africa 100 launch at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, South Africa.

The event took place at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, South Africa, on Friday, 24 May. Brand Africa, in partnership with Geopoll, Kantar and Brand Leadership, made the announcement at an event attended by industry leaders from across Africa.

Since 2011, the Brand Africa 100 has been surveying and ranking the most admired brands spontaneously recalled by African consumers. n a relatively stable Top 100 list, the US sports and fitness mega brand, Nike, retains the overall #1 brand in Africa spontaneously recalled by consumers.

South African telecoms brand MTN is the #1 African brand spontaneously recalled brand, while surging Ethiopian brand Anbessa Shoes, at #2, swopped positions with Nigerian conglomerate, Dangote, which is the #3 most admired brand of African of origin. However, when consumers are prompted to recall the most admired African brand, Dangote retains the #1 position.

Overall, African brands faltered to an all-time low 14% share of the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa. Faced with a relentless focus on the African opportunity and investment by non-African brands, Africa’s share of the most admired brands has been rapidly declining over the past 3 years from a high of 25% in 2013/4 to lows of 16% in 2015/6, 16% in 2016/7 and 17% in 2017/8.

Non-African brands have entrenched their positions in Africa, with North American brands, dominated exclusively by United States of America brands (28%), leading with a growth of 17% versus 2017/8. The strength of USA brands was boosted by the entry and/or re-entry of stalwart American brands such as #71 Levi’s, #91 Chevrolet and Pepsi’s Miranda at #80, who are all among the 20 new entrants. European brands (41%) are up by 2,5% and Asian brands (17%) down by 10%, round up the continental spread of brands Africans admire.

The Brand Africa 100 rankings are based on a survey among a representative sample of respondents 18 years and older, conducted in 25 countries across Africa. Covering all African economic regions, collectively these countries account for an estimated 80% of the continent’s population and 75% of the GDP.

In a reconfigured category listing where technology and electronics and telecoms categories were separated and new categories of luxury and personal care were introduced or re-introduced, the Top 100 is dominated by technology and electronic brands (18%) and telecoms (7%), consumer (non-cyclical) (16%), auto manufacturers (11%), luxury (10%), automobile (11%), apparel (8%), retail (7%), food (4%), non-alcoholic beverages (5%), personal care (4%), sports & fitness (4%) and media (1%) categories are the top categories.

Diversified

Overall, the 2018/19 Brand Africa 100 list, which is calculated from 15,000 brand mentions illustrates a very diversified range of brands in Africa and shows year on year consistency with 80% of the Top 100 brands having been in the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in previous years.

The highest gains are dominated by apparel and luxury brands Vans (+65), FILA (+50) and a resurgent Levi’s (+29). The sports category, led by Nike (#1), remains a strong performer, due to strategic repositioning or expansion in their positioning towards lifestyle high profile endorsements, and partnerships which have freshened and broadened the brands’ appeal, particularly to youthful and young consumers. The biggest faller was Peak Milk, dropping from 33 to 98, possibly due to the dairy industry globally seeing a significant drop in sales of cows’ milk as alternatives are becoming more and more popular amongst consumers. Victoria’s Secret and Indomie dropped 36 and 33 spots respectively.

Because of the transformational and catalytic impact of media and financial services in Africa, Brand Africa has a separate promoted question of the Most Admired Financial Services Brands and Most Admired Media Brands.

In the media sub-survey, DStv (incorporating GoTV, Multichoice and Supersport) has welcomed its brother the SABC onto the Top 10 media list. The media list is led by BBC, which has an extensive history and coverage of Africa through its BBC Worldservice radio and specific African programming. The media list is dominated by Europe (40%), North America (20%) and Asia (20%). A deeper analysis of the media category shows high levels of fragmentation, with many local and regional players – thus in general only global players with extensive African reach and resources dominate the top of the list.

In the Most Admired Financial Services Brands category, Ecobank has ascended to the #1 position as the Most Admired Financial Services Brand, and Safaricom Mpesa retains its pole position among mobile money brands. 60% of the are made in Africa. The presence of multiple mobile money brands on the list, including Safaricom Mpesa (#13), Orange Money (#18), MTN Mobile Money (#19) and Tigo (#23), underscores the impact of not only Mpesa as the catalyst, but mobile as a key enabler for financial access. The Top 25 Most Admired Financial Services Brands list is dominated by South Africa (6), Nigeria (5) and Kenya (2).

Disappointing

“It is disappointing that despite its vibrant entrepreneurial environment, Africa is not creating new competitive brands to meet the needs of its growing consumer market, says Thebe Ikalafeng, founder and chairman of Brand Africa and Brand Leadership. “These rankings are an important metric of and challenge for creating home-grown competitive African brands that will transform the African promise and change its narrative and image as a competitive continent. African brands have an important role in helping to build the African brand.”

Brand Africa 100 was developed by pan-African branding and reputation advisory firm, Brand Leadership Group supported by GeoPoll, the leader in mobile-based market research throughout Africa, and strategic analysis and insights by Kantar TNS, the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company.

GeoPoll used their sophisticated mobile survey platform to identify the most admired brands in Africa among a representative sample of African consumers in 25 African countries.

"The scope of the Brand Africa study across such a diverse sample and geographic spread would be impossible to achieve using traditional research methodologies,” said Nicholas Becker, GeoPoll CEO. “Using GeoPoll's mobile-based research platform and large panel of respondents, we were able to quickly gather more than 15,000 brand mentions from 25 countries in Africa, providing brands with valuable data that will inform their growth. GeoPoll was pleased to partner with Brand Africa once again to gather this vital research across Africa."

Emotional connection

“The key to success for building sustainable brands, irrespective of origins or domicile, is to establish an emotional connection, creating intimacy and being more present in consumers everyday lives. This survey, a complex analysis of diverse data and countries to arrive at a representative ranking, is an important metric of the brands that play that are doing a better job and playing a vital role in Africa,” said Karin Du Chenne, chief growth officer Kantar Africa Middle East.

This year, Brand Africa introduced a category to recognise the highest listed brands on African bourses among the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa. Although Vodacom Group’s market capitalisation is higher than MTN on the JSE, MTN is the #1 mentioned South African brand across Africa, because the group brand on the Top 100 list, Vodafone, is not listed on the JSE. All South African brands, Standard Bank, MTN, Absa, Shoprite, Tiger Brands on the Top 100 list are listed on the JSE. MTN (South Africa), Dangote (Nigeria) and Safaricom (Kenya) are the most admired highest listed brands on sub-Sahara’s leading bourses, the JSE, Nigeria Stock Exchange and Nairobi Securities Exchange respectively.

“The JSE is a platform of African and global companies alike to raise capital and grow their businesses and brands.   It is our continuous aim that as an exchange, we continue to provide a world class platform that enables growth through innovative products to meet the needs of our clients and grow the African continent from strength to strength,” says Zanele Morrison, director marketing, retail development and corporate affairs at the JSE.

Highlights

Highlights of the Most Admired Brands in Africa:

• African brands fall by 18% to an all-time low of 14% share of the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa relative to non-African brands.
• Non-african brands dominate Africa with 86% of the top 100 brands in Africa
• Nike retains #1 spot as Most Admired Brand in Africa
• Top African brands are South Africa’s MTN, Ethiopia’s Anbessa Shoe and Nigeria’s Dangote
• Dangote retains rank as #1 most admired African brand recalled when consumers are prompted for African brands. 
• MTN is the highest listed brand on the JSE among the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa.
• FILA (+50), Auchan (+40),) and LC Waikiki (+31) made the most gains.
• Peak Milk(-65) , Victoria's Secret (-36) and Indomie (-33) lost the most ground.
• USA’s Vans (#35) made most spectacular entry into the Top 100.
• Technology brands (18%), consumer (non-cyclical) (16%), Auto Manufactures (11%), automobile (8%), Luxury (10%) and Apparel (8%) categories are the top categories.
• MTN (South Africa), Dangote (Nigeria) and Safaricom (Kenya) are the highest brands listed on the leading sub-Saharan bourses, the JSE, Nigeria Stock Exchange and Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Highlights of the Most Admired African Brands:

• Dangote retains rank as #1 most admired African brand recalled when consumers are prompted for African brands. 
• MTN retains the #1 spot as the Most Admired African brand spontaneously recalled across Africa.
• Southern Africa (7) leads with South African brands (5) leads the tables, West Africa (4) leads with Nigerian brands (4) and East Africa (3) leads with Kenya (1) among brands recalled spontaneously.
• South Africa (5) and Nigeria (4) lead the seven African countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, each with one brand in the Top 100 among brands recalled spontaneously.
• Southern Africa (10) leads with South Africa (6), East Africa (8) leads with Kenya (4) and West Africa (7) leads with Nigeria (4) among brands recalled when prompted for most admired African brands.

*The Brand Africa 100 results are available online at www.brandafrica.