Dangote remains most admired African brand – survey

Nigeria’s Dangote Group, for the 2nd year running, has emerged the most admired African brand.

A survey of 100 Africa best brands, announced in Johannesburg at the weekend, put Dangote Group ahead of telecommunication giant, MTN.

According to the 7th edition of South Africa-based Brand Africa, in a survey carried out in collaboration with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), of 15,000 brands mentioned, Dangote ranked first when consumers were prompted to recall the most admired African brand.

In the top 100 list, the United States sports and fitness mega brand, Nike, a non-African brand, retains the overall number 1 brand in Africa spontaneously recalled by consumers.

South African telecoms brand, MTN, is the number 1 African brand spontaneously recalled brand, while surging Ethiopian brand, Anbessa Shoes, at number 2, swapped positions with Nigerian conglomerate, Dangote, which is the number 3 most admired brand of African of origin.

However, when consumers are prompted to recall the most admired African brand, Dangote retains the number 1 position.

Just last year, Dangote brand was named the most valuable brand among the top 50 brands in Nigeria for 2018 by Brand Nigeria.

Further analysis of the ranking indicates that 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 per cent of the top 100 brands having been in the top 100 Most Admired Brands in previous years.

Overall, African brands faltered to an all-time low 14 percent share of the top 100 most admired brands in Africa.

However, 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.

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 percent in 2013/14 to lows of 16 percent in 2015/16, 16 percent in 2016/17 and 17 percent in 2017/18.

“Today at the JSE, at an event with industry leaders from across Africa, hosted by the JSE in partnership with Geopoll, Kantar and Brand Leadership, Brand Africa announced the Top 100 brands in Africa in their seventh annual Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands. Nike, MTN, Dangote, Ecobank and BBC were recognised as the most admired brands on the continent,” a statement from the Brand Africa said.

It added: “Non-African brands have entrenched their positions in Africa, with North American brands, dominated exclusively by American brands (28 percent), leading with a growth of 17 percent versus 2017/8. The strength of US brands was boosted by the entry and/or re-entry of stalwart American brands such as number 71 Levi’s, number 91 Chevrolet and Pepsi’s Miranda at number 80, who are all among the 20 new entrants. European brands (41 percent) are up by 2.5 percent and Asian brands (17 percent) down by 10 percent, 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 percent of the continent’s population and 75 percent of the gross domestic product (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 percent) and telecoms (7 percent), consumer (non-cyclical) (16 percent), auto manufacturers (11 percent), luxury (10 percent), automobile (11 percent), apparel (8 percent), retail (7 percent), food (4 percent), non-alcoholic beverages (5 percent), personal care (4 percent), sports & fitness (4 percent) and media (1 percent) categories.

Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Brand Leadership, Thebe Ikalafeng, said of the outcome of survey: “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. 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.

It is an inter-generational movement to inspire a great Africa through promoting a positive image of Africa, celebrating its diversity and driving its competitiveness.

It is a brand-led movement, which recognizes that in the 21st century, brands are an asset and a vector of image, reputation and competitiveness of nations. Brand Africa seeks to inspire a brand-led African renaissance.

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