The news has been packed with stories about how a lot of South African companies are in the toilet.

Cell C’s financial situation is getting worse, Eskom is officially a black hole for money, and the rest of our State-Owned Enterprises are basically treading water while they desperately try to formulate a solution to their cash flow problems.

With that in mind, let’s indulge in a change of pace and a little positivity, courtesy of research group Brand Finance and its latest annual review of the strongest and most valuable brands in South Africa.

Here’s BusinessTech:

As defined by the report, brand value is equal to a net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand. Brand strength is used to determine what proportion of a business’ revenue is contributed by the brand.

In calculating this value, Brand Finance uses the royalty relief approach, which it says “involves estimating the likely future revenues that are attributable to a brand by calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for its use, to arrive at a ‘brand value’ as a net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market.”

Using these metrics, the research group determined that MTN is once again the most valuable brand in the country, with a value of R50,28 billion – up 13,7% from 2018’s R44,2 billion.

The top 10 most valuable brands in descending order:

In terms of brand strength, the report looks at marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and the impact of those on business performance.

When you apply this particular metric, the results look a bit different:

Castle is now the second-strongest brand in South Africa – a massive jump from 21st in 2018 – followed by FNB climbing one place to third.

“Castle continues to benefit from its multiple sports sponsorship partnerships and from successful marketing drives, most notably the #SmashTheLabel campaign, which encouraged South Africans to unite against discrimination,” the group said.

Carling Black Label makes its debut at fourth position, with Discovery also seeing a massive climb to fifth (from 15th in 2018).

The top 10 strongest brands in South Africa:

I guess people are always going to drink, bank, and use their phones.

If you’re freaking out about your Cell C contract, you might want to switch to Vodacom or MTN. Looks like they’ll still be around for a while.

[source:businesstech]