Most valuable Chinese brands unveiled

Results of the third annual BrandZ™ Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands study, commissioned by WPP, the world's largest market communications services group, and undertaken by Millward Brown, a WPP-owned consumer insight research agency, were released at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Beijing on Tuesday, December 4, 2012. According to the survey's results, Chinese consumers are paying more attention to brands as companies are being forced to provide more differentiated products and services in order to satisfy a more sophisticated and informed consumer base.

To qualify for this year's study, all brands must (1) have been originally created by a Mainland China enterprise, (2) be publicly traded, (3) report positive earnings, and (4) when valuing a financial institution, only banks that obtained at least 20% of their earnings from retail banking can qualify.

The combined value of China's top 50 brands fell 1.6% from 2012, down to US$320,224 million. In spite of a lingering global economic recession and a net decrease in brand value, the most valuable Chinese brands outperformed the MSCI China index by 11.4% as of September 2012.

China Mobile retained the number one spot atop the BrandZ™ rankings with a brand value of US$50,589 million, down 6% year-on-year. Financial service providers ICBC and China Construction Bank placed second and third, with respective brand values of US$40,444 million and US$23,993 million. Technology giants Baidu and Tencent both showed strong brand value growth in 2012: Baidu moved up two positions to number four and Tencent jumped five places to fifth.

Also encouraging is the growth of China's private sector in competition with State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), rising from 22% market share in 2011 to the current 27%.

Adrian Gonzalez, head of Greater China at Millward Brown said: “Building strong brands domestically is a vital template for the increasing number of Chinese brand owners exploring international markets. This year's BrandZ™ Top 50 gives an insight into how an expanding group of privately-owned Chinese brands are growing value by meaningfully differentiating their brands.”

This year's rankings saw four newcomers: (15) Bank of Communications – financial institution, (39) Harbin - beer, (45) Youngor – apparel, and (49) Semir, - apparel.

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