Petrobras is top Latin American brand

RIO DE JANEIRO: Petrobras, Telcel and Bradesco are the most valuable brands in Latin America, a new study has revealed.

Millward Brown Optimor and BrandAnalytics valued the region's top 50 intangible assets at $135.7bn, with operators from Brazil delivering 34% of this total, compared with 27% for their Mexican peers and 20% for their Chilean counterparts.

Petrorbras, the Brazilian energy group, led the charts on $10.6bn, ahead of Telcel, the Mexican telecoms specialist, on $8.4bn. Two financial services players from Brazil followed next, in the form of Bradesco on $6.7bn and Itaú on $6.6bn.

Comcel, the Colombian telecoms expert, followed on $5.5bn, beating Falabella, the Chilean retailer, on $5.3bn, Corona, the Mexican beer, on $5.1bn and Skol, a Brazilian competitor, on $4.7bn.

Making up the top ten were Banco be Brasil, another financial services firm, on $4.6bn and Claro, the Mexican communications provider, on $4.3bn.

Elsewhere, the analysis identified which offerings boasted the highest brand "contribution", or its contribution to future earnings, exclusive of other factors like financial performance.

Bohemia, Skol and Brahma, the Brazilian beers, all scored a maximum here, as did Quilmes, a rival from Argentina. Natura, the Brazilian cosmetics manufacturer, was also among this cohort, as was Lider, a Chilean retailer.

Despite taking the number one spot, Petrobras scored just one point here, indicating the relative weakness of branding for natural resources firms. Ecopetrol, an energy group just outside the top ten overall on $4.2bn, thus posted the same score.

In all, 14 retailers featured in the rankings, making this the most successful category. Ten financial services brands also featured, as did eight from the communications sector and six beers.

As an indication of where Latin America stands on the global stage, the region's top 50 brands were worth half the $311bn valuation of the equivalent assets in China.

"Latin America is much less monolithic than China," said Eduardo Tomiya, of BrandAnalytics. "But increasingly, companies are thinking about whether to develop a pan-regional brand, or maintain a portfolio of many local brands."

The opportunities for companies willing to forge a regional presence appear to be substantial, given that the 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean house 600m people, and $5tr in GDP.

Data sourced from WPP Group; additional content by Warc staff, 22 June 2012

SIMILAR NEWS