national brands across the globe

national brands across the globe

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  Nation Brands2015 W hen consumers shopfor products, brand recogni- tion weighs heavily on their choices. So too when compa- nies shop around for their next expansion destinations. Although there is a science behind many decisions about where to invest – with elaborate benchmarking exer- cises carried out and numbers thor- oughly crunched – underlying all of this is a human factor: people’s per- ception of a place and their immedi- ate association with its name. After all, even the most hard-nosed executives are human. While it is hard to quantify the precise impact these perceptions have on investment decisions, the results of a study on national brands suggest a match between the coun- tries with the most highly regarded brands and those that attract the most FDI. Nation Brands 2015, an annual report on the world’s most valuable country brands produced by consul- tancy Brand Finance, ranks the US as the world’s most valuable country brand. It also happens to be the number one destination for greenfield FDI projects, accord- ing to data from fDi Markets, a crossborder investment moni- toring service affiliated with fDi Magazine. China, which ranks number two by brand value, happens to be the top destination for greenfield FDI when measured by capital expenditure. The countries that round out the top five on the brand value list – Germany, the UK and Japan – are all among the world’s top FDI destinations. The link is clear. For the study, Brand Finance measured the strength and value of the brands of 100 leading countries using a method based on the royalty relief mechanism employed to value the world’s largest companies. Brand Finance attributes the US’s top position to the country’s sheer economic scale. “Not only is there a large, wealthy market predis- posed to ‘buy American’ but also an unrivalled group of established com- panies and organisations exporting worldwide, whose American heritage forms (to a lesser or greater extent) part of their appeal. The US’s world- leading higher education system and the soft power arising from its domi- nance of the music and entertain- ment industries are significant con- tributors too,” the report states. “This soft power will help the US to retain the most valuable nation brand for some time after China’s seemingly imminent rise to become the world’s biggest economy.” Singapore’s strength While the US retains the most valuable brand, Singapore is judged to have the world’s strongest brand. According to the metrics used for the study, a country’s brand value is reli- ant upon GDP, i.e. revenues associ- ated with the brand. “Singapore’s small size means it will never be able to challenge for the top spot in brand value terms, because its brand sim- ply cannot be applied extensively enough to generate the same eco- nomic uplift as ‘brand USA’ for example,” the report says. But in terms of its underlying country brand strength, Singapore does a lot with a little. It is also among the world’s most popular investment destinations, as are the countries that follow it on the Brand Strength index: Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Finland, which ranks fourth, and New Zealand (fifth) are interesting outliers: while both hold appeal as FDI destinations, neither are in the top tier of FDI countries, suggesting they have not fully maximised their strong brands in their inward investment drives. ■ To download a copy of the full report please visit www.brandfinance.com GLOBAL Outlook Brandranking 38 www.fDiIntelligence.com October/November 2015 The US has the most valuable country brand, according to the latest Nation Brands 2015 report. No coincidence, then, that it is also the number one destination for greenfield FDI
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  GLOBAL Outlook Brandranking 39October/November 2015 www.fDiIntelligence.com Top50 Countries’ brand strength 2015 rank Rank/100 Country Rating 1 88 Singapore AAA 2 86 Switzerland AAA 3 86 UAE AAA 4 86 Finland AAA 5 86 New Zealand AAA 6 85 Hong Kong AAA 7 84 Netherlands AAA- 8 83 Luxembourg AAA- 9 83 Qatar AAA- 10 83 Norway AAA- 11 82 UK AAA- 12 82 Ireland AAA- 13 82 Germany AAA- 14 82 Japan AAA- 15 81 Malaysia AAA- 16 81 Sweden AAA- 17 81 Canada AAA- 18 81 US AAA- 19 80 Denmark AAA- 20 77 Belgium AA+ 21 77 Taiwan AA+ 22 77 Austria AA+ 23 76 Australia AA+ 24 76 Iceland AA+ 25 73 Estonia AA 26 73 Bahrain AA 27 72 Saudi Arabia AA 28 72 France AA 29 71 Oman AA 30 70 Portugal AA 31 70 Chile AA 32 69 Cyprus AA- 33 68 Israel AA- 34 66 Spain AA- 35 66 Lithuania AA- 36 66 South Korea AA- 37 66 China AA- 38 65 Latvia AA- 39 65 Mauritius AA- 40 65 South Africa AA- 41 65 Thailand AA- 42 65 Czech Republic AA- 43 64 Jordan A+ 44 64 Indonesia A+ 45 63 Panama A+ 46 63 Poland A+ 47 63 Sri Lanka A+ 48 63 Georgia A+ 49 63 Costa Rica A+ 50 62 Philippines A+ Source: Brand Finance Top 10 brand strength index 2015: sub-pillars – society rank Rank/100 Country Rating 1 92 New Zealand AAA+ 2 89 Finland AAA 3 89 Luxembourg AAA 4 88 UAE AAA 5 88 Singapore AAA 6 88 Norway AAA 7 88 Switzerland AAA 8 87 Netherlands AAA 9 87 Ireland AAA 10 87 Denmark AAA Source: Brand Finance Top 10 brand strength index 2015: sub-pillars – Investment rank Rank/100 Country Rating 1 91 Singapore AAA+ 2 90 Switzerland AAA+ 3 89 Hong Kong AAA 4 86 UAE AAA 5 86 Qatar AAA 6 86 Finland AAA 7 85 Malaysia AAA 8 84 New Zealand AAA- 9 83 US AAA- 10 83 Norway AAA- Source: Brand Finance Top 10 brand strength index 2015: sub-pillars – Goods and Services rank Rank/100 Country Rating 1 85 US AAA 2 85 Japan AAA 3 85 Singapore AAA 4 84 Germany AAA- 5 84 Netherlands AAA- 6 83 UAE AAA- 7 82 UK AAA- 8 82 Finland AAA- 9 82 Malaysia AAA- 10 80 Switzerland AAA- Source: Brand Finance
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  GLOBAL Outlook Brandranking 40 www.fDiIntelligence.com October/November2015 Top 50 Countries’ brand value – 2015 Rank Rank Country Brand Effect ($bn) Change Change 2015 2014 2015 2014 (%) ($bn) 1 1 US 3172.8 2953.2 7 220 2 2 China 828.1 867.9 -5 -40 3 3 Germany 679.2 670.3 1 9 4 4 UK 494.2 425.4 16 69 5 5 Japan 414.2 357.5 16 57 6 7 France 309.6 286.0 8 24 7 8 India 255.3 223.2 14 32 8 6 Canada 332.3 349.3 -5 -17 9 11 Italy 169.6 161.8 5 8 10 9 Australia 214.6 228.6 -6 -14 11 10 Brazil 126.3 184.9 -32 -59 12 15 South Korea 143.7 134.3 7 9 13 13 Mexico 124.7 110.5 13 14 14 16 Switzerland 175.9 148.9 18 27 15 14 Netherlands 168.9 165.4 2 3 16 18 Spain 115.6 107.5 8 8 17 17 Sweden 132.7 119.2 11 13 18 12 Russia 88.9 122.5 -27 -34 19 19 Turkey 81.9 102.8 -20 -21 20 20 Poland 71.7 78.8 -9 -7 21 21 Indonesia 72.6 71.6 1 1 22 23 Saudi Arabia 73.3 62.3 18 11 23 24 Belgium 77.3 62.5 24 15 24 25 Taiwan 69.4 59.5 17 10 25 22 Austria 67.2 68.5 -2 -1 26 31 Singapore 72.4 57.6 26 15 27 28 Denmark 65.9 56.7 16 9 28 29 Malaysia 66.3 57.9 14 8 29 30 UAE 69.2 54.7 27 14 30 27 Norway 64.0 62.4 3 2 31 26 Thailand 44.8 58.3 -23 -14 32 33 Hong Kong 64.6 48.2 34 16 33 32 Finland 49.5 47.9 3 2 34 39 Ireland 46.9 35.5 32 11 35 35 Philippines 33.3 32.6 2 1 36 37 Qatar 38.8 36.8 6 2 37 36 South Africa 29.3 34.0 -14 -5 38 38 Chile 30.5 34.4 -11 -4 39 34 Argentina 18.1 31.5 -43 -13 40 40 New Zealand 34.2 27.7 24 7 41 42 Nigeria 18.1 17.4 4 1 42 41 Czech Republic 24.1 21.5 12 3 43 47 Israel 24.6 19.6 25 5 44 45 Kazakhstan 21.2 19.2 10 2 45 46 Colombia 18.5 17.0 9 1 46 - Iran 17.2 11.0 57 6 47 49 Bangladesh 14.5 13.6 7 1 48 48 Romania 16.1 15.4 5 1 49 43 Vietnam 16.0 23.1 -31 -7 50 50 Portugal 19.2 15.2 27 4 Source: Brand Finance brand rating Brand Index Brand Rating category 0 D Failing 5 D 10 DD 15 DDD 20 C Weak 25 CC 30 CCC 35 B Average 40 BB 45 BBB 50 A- Strong 55 A 60 A+ 65 AA- Very strong 70 AA 75 AA+ 80 AAA- Extremely strong 85 AAA 90 AAA+ 95 AAA+ 100 AAA+ Source: Brand Finance