In 2018, beverage tycoon AB InBev catapulted its Corona brand to the top spot as Latin America's most valuable brand – identified by Kantar Consulting in its annual BrandZ Top 50 Latin American Most Valuable Brands 2018 report. Just behind it was Heineken-owned Brazilian beer brand Skol and just three food brands featured in the ranking: Bimbo, Sadia and Marinela.
Five key brand attributes
Roberto de Napoli, director at Kantar Consulting Brazil, said there were some important takeaways and key learnings from the top 50 most valuable brands in Latin America because they all had one thing in common – they over-performed in five key areas:
- Brand purpose
- Innovation
- Communication
- Brand experience
- Love
Over-performance across these areas or 'attributes' – as perceived by consumers – was critical, Napoli said, in driving brand value and ousting the competition. Explaining these metrics in more detail, he told FoodNavigator-LATAM other companies could achieve this by:
- Having a clear idea on how to make people's lives better (brand purpose)
- Staying ahead in the market and setting new trends or creating something new which led to a long-term relationship with consumers (innovation)
- Gaining visibility with a differential message (communication)
- Delivering the best experience at every touch point (brand experience)
- Sparking an emotional connection with consumers, which also created a long-term relationship (love)
A strategy to success...
But, given only three food companies had ranked in 2018's top 50 list, was there an obvious sway away from such brands and an underlying trend towards others?
Napoli said: “There is not a pattern or type of company or product sector in the food segment that is most valued. The key for a brand that wants to be highly valued in the region is to innovate; offering a totally new brand experience.”
In addition to innovating, he said it was important to have a “clear brand purpose and stay relevant to consumers” as well as “keep the local characteristics of the brand and explore emotional attributes that are associated with local needs”. All of this, he said, would help strengthen consumer-brand relationships.
'A clever idea needs to be at the heart of everything'
Writing in the top 50 report, retail and brand expert David Roth, CEO of The Store WPP, EMEA and Asia, said brands with the strongest value growth in 2018 had “taken a powerful creative idea and used it in clever ways both on and offline”.
“Big campaigns can still have a big impact, provided they do more than create a big noise. A clever idea, that resonates with the audience, needs to be at the heart of everything,” Roth said.
“We know, through experience in this region and around the wold, that brands that invest in maintaining and building relationships with consumers during turbulent times generate the highest levels of closeness and loyalty. Strong, valuable brands also deliver superior shareholder returns.”
You can read FoodNavigator-LATAM's original coverage of Kantar Consulting's BrandZ Top 50 Latin American Most Valuable Brands 2018 report HERE.
