Top UK brands ranked by value

BRAND VALUE

In the latest BrandZ listing of Top 75 UK brands, a brand's value depends on consumer perceptions of innovation, differentiation and communication. Strong brands not only innovate, they communicate their differentiation to remain top of mind amongst the target market of consumers.

According to Kantar Millward Brown, which conducts the BrandZ studies, the top five UK brands in terms of value are all well established with consumers and have a high public profile:

5. Sky (telecom)

4. BT (telecom)

3. Shell (energy)

2. HSBC (financial services)

1. Vodafone (telecom)

Kantar also notes the value growth of many relatively new brands such as Deliveroo (delivery of takeaway orders) and BrewDog (craft beer).

What do brands need to increase or maintain their value amongst consumers?

'To grow, they need to work on increasing consumer perceptions that they are different, innovative and relevant', says a Kantar UK exec. 'The disruptors entering the ranking, meanwhile, need to make their difference meaningful and salient to consumers – if they fail to do so they could have a short lifespan'.

Entrepreneurs give marketing advice

Startups often have big ideas but little money, so marketing is vital to survival and growth.

Here are quotes from entrepreneurs about their marketing ideas and insights.

• 'My service isn’t for everyone, it is for those who appreciate it for what it is'. Melissa Curley, founder of SocialBee, which puts on afternoon tea events for clients, large and small. Her marketing insight is that the target market is not everyone, only people who understand the benefits and value and are willing to pay for her service. 
• 'Look for collaboration and you will find opportunities to grow'. Aaron Jones, founder of Fikay Fashion, an ethical clothing company that puts profits towards reducing poverty. His insight is that marketers can leverage the resources and ideas of partners to become bigger--a good idea for businesses of all sizes. 
• 'Having a pet pig is what I’m known for, it’s what people I meet always want to know about and I’d like to think my business has some of the best qualities of pigs - being smart, sociable and down-to-earth.' Why Katy Pollard named her business Listening Pig Communications is an interesting example of how to stimulate conversation about you and your offering. She didn't brand her service 'pig' but instead added words that would convey more about what her business does.
• 'Usually the original has the greatest value, and will be sought out, and this is the thought, as original creators, that we must cling on to'. Gary Lancet created the Bookchair, a bookholder that would reduce neck strain. Then he began to worry about competitors copying his unique design. So his marketing insight is to protect the innovation but also remember that first-mover advantage has meaning to customers.

Marketing and creativity

Whether you're developing a marketing plan or looking for a new marketing idea, here are a few sites to check for inspiration and information:

• Brand Republic's best digital campaigns - Shown at left, selected mobile, social media and online marketing campaigns.
• Mobile Marketing Magazine's Innovation Lab - A weekly review of some of the week's tech innovations. Recent innovations pictured include cardboard guitars, sweat-powered clothing and invisible keyboards.
• Think with Google's Creative gallery page - Articles and advice about advertising, social media, branding and other creative marketing activities.
• The Drum's creative page - Articles and opinion about advertising, brand creativity and media innovations.

Top UK brands--and branding insights

The 2015 Brandz study (methodology by Millward Brown) puts Vodafone on top as the most valuable UK brand of the year. In order, the top 5 UK brands, by value, are:

1. Vodafone (telecoms)
2. HSBC (financial services)
3. Shell (oil/energy)
4. BT (telecoms)
5. BP (oil/energy)

 The most valuable brands in the world are all US-based:

1. Apple (electronics)
2. Google (Internet/electronics)
3. Microsoft (electronics)
4. IBM (computers and services)
5. Visa (financial services)

Millward Brown's top 5 insights for increasing brand value are: Innovate and delight the customer; be meaningfully different (in ways that customers value); stand for a purpose; act according to the purpose; build and maintain trust.

Unilever and Procter & Gamble crowdsource innovation

Unilever--known for its portfolio of food, personal care, and household products--has established a special crowdsourcing site to invite ideas for new products and new technology, as well as to invite applications for venture funding.

The Unilever Foundry is designed to accelerate acquisition and implementation of new crowdsourced products/technologies 'ten-fold' within 5 years. This Unilever site has a dedicated Twitter feed for news about innovation and venture funding.

Procter & Gamble, one of Unilever's key competitors, has its own innovation site, P&G Connect & Develop, also for crowdsourcing ideas to meet the company's needs, including marketing content.  P&G has a special Twitter account devoted to crowdsourcing, as well.

How far can companies go in crowdsourcing innovation?

When will UK laggards buy smartphones?

Above, the familiar graph showing how new innovative new tech products are adopted first by innovators, followed by early adopters, early/late majority segments, and finally--the laggards.

What about the pace of smartphone adoption in the UK market? According to experts, the smartphone will reach a penetration level of 80% by January of 2015. That means buyers from the late majority segment are currently adopting smartphones. By the time the laggards get around to buying smartphones, the market will be well into maturity and non-smartphones will be all but finished as mainstream products.

In the UK, smartphone users spend more time on their devices than users in other countries. Content providers are also affected by this penetration level, because more smartphones means higher demand for mobile entertainment, games, etc.

And thanks to this high penetration level, marketers like Sony, Apple and Samsung will be playing a replacement game, which calls for different marketing strategy and tactics (particularly pricing). These three brands accounted for about 75% of the smartphone market in the UK last year.

Already, Apple has debuted lower-priced iPhones, for example. Samsung and Apple are also adding new features (like biometric security) to attract consumers who trade up from older phones.

When will the UK market reach saturation? 

Core values of the Warburtons brand

Family-owned Warburtons has been named to two 'top grocery brands' lists in recent weeks, due to its positive brand associations and rapid growth.

• Kantar Worldpanel put Warburtons at the top of the list because it is chosen so frequently by so many UK households--and because of its product innovations.
• The Grocer put Warburtons #2 in its most recent brand listing (just behind Coca-Cola), in part because of the huge sales expansion it has experienced.

The company's turnover has doubled in the last ten years and continues to grow because of new product lines and product variations. It's aiming to capture market share via an expanding range of gluten-free products, for example.

Warburtons wants its brand to be associated with five core values: family, ambition, responsibility, quality and care. These values form the foundation for its marketing, including new product development and support for nonprofit causes. The family's name is on the business, and Warburtons works hard to maintain its brand leadership by applying the five core values every day.

Are You Using Porter's Five Forces Model?

Whether you're writing a marketing plan for a startup business or an existing organisation ready to enter new markets, you'll need to analyse the competitive situation in the industry.

One way to look at industry competition is through the lens of Professor Michael Porter's Five Forces model, which asks five strategic questions:

1. How much bargaining power do buyers have? If there are only a few buyers, the business is likely to feel downward pressure on pricing. How can you make your offering stand out and add value that buyers will pay for? What role can good customer service play in your competitive situation?
2. How much bargaining power do suppliers have? The more power suppliers have, the higher costs are likely to be. Keep this in mind as you plan your resource allocation and your profit-and-loss potential.
3. How many substitutes are available for your offering? If there are many available substitutes for your good or service, competition will be more intense. And when buyers have many substitutes to choose from, that can negatively impact the marketer's ability to increase sales and maintain profitable pricing.
4. What is the likelihood of new entrants coming into the industry? When many new entrants join the market, price competition intensifies and existing competitors may have profit problems. However, if there are few barriers to entry, build your marketing plan on promising opportunities that can be exploited with your unique strengths and capabilities. Also plan to build your brand into a barrier to entry.
5. How much rivalry exists in the industry? Investigate the existing competitive situation to determine whether a market or segment is overly competitive--which can lead to price wars and other profit-sapping challenges.

Despite the constant change in the marketing environment, a careful competitive analysis will help you plan for innovatively pursuing opportunities and deflecting threats. Don't forget to include competitiveness when assessing which market segments to enter and what order.

Reckitt Benckiser's Vision: Healthier Lives, Happier Homes

The mission of multinational household/health products giant Reckitt Benckiser is to make a difference by giving people innovative solutions for healthier lives and happier homes. The company, known for brands such as Mucinex, Strepsils, Dettol, Durex and French's, operates according to four values: achievement, entrepreneurship, partnership and ownership.

Now, updating the preview example from chapter 1 of my Essential Guide to Marketing Planning, here's more about Reckitt Benckiser's marketing plan for future growth.

The company is launching innovative products under established brands such as Nurofen to build profitable turnover in emerging markets like Latin America. CEO Rakesh Kapoor says: 'Scarcity is the mother of invention'. His point is that an abundance of resources is not needed to stimulate innovation--in fact, people become more creative when they don't have everything they need to develop a new product.

What about communications and creativity? Reckitt Benckiser's brands are now reaching online audiences through captcha advertising activities.

As at left, when an Internet user has to show that he or she is a person, not a bot, the captcha at right achieves that goal with a touch of brand-related whimsy. Users drag the rusty penny into the Cillit Bang cleaner--linking the brand with its benefit.

Finally, Reckitt Banckiser is currently considering a major strategic change: Whether to sell its pharmaceuticals business, which is under pressure from lower-priced products.