How a relentless focus on brand building makes UK businesses stand apart

From BP to Barclays, British brands are seeing a huge global prominence says Anastasia A. Kourovskaia, vice-president, Millward Brown Optimor. How are they doing it?

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic Games put the UK firmly in the global spotlight in 2012 – and while economists argue over whether the economic uplift the events provided exceeded the cost of running them, British brands, including BT and BP, were clear winners.

Seven British brands feature in this year’s BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, accounting for over a quarter of the value of all European brands in the 2013 ranking.

Over the years Britain has given the world a number of iconic brands, from Rolls-Royce, which sells 90% of its output overseas, to Burberry which, after a remarkable turnaround, is ranked as the eighth most valuable luxury brand in the world.

According to the BrandZ Top 100 report, the UK top 10 – which is dominated by banking, telecoms and oil and gas brands – created close to £98.4 billion for their shareholders in the last year.

HSBC, number two in the UK ranking and the highest placed global bank in the Top 100, grew its brand value 24% with a dual focus on strengthening its financials and its brand equity. The bank has firmly established itself as a worthy contender in the fast growing areas of Asia and Latin America, and its focus on long-term strategy appears to be bearing fruit.

Barclays has successfully recaptured brand value with an increase of 34%, following the restructuring and streamlining of its business, as well as its focus on rebuilding trust in an attempt to bounce back from the reputational issues that have dogged global banks over recent years.

On his second day in the job, Barclays’ new CEO pledged to transform the profit-driven culture to one based on customer service and respect. The strategy is centred on business fundamentals, returning to basic principles and reshaping communications.

Given the decline in brand value of the oil and gas category as a whole, BP’s 11% value growth shows how proactively managing a brand protects and enhances corporate value in tough times. BP’s strenuous work to revitalise its brand in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon crisis has paid off: after a 27% decrease in brand value in 2011 and a 17% drop in 2012, both its financial value and brand contribution – the proportion of the brand’s financial value that is attributable to brand alone – have both increased.

As well as being buoyed by a successful association with the Olympics, as the official oil and gas partner for the Games, BP’s arguably open and honest communication around the crisis helped it rise to sixth place in the oil and gas top 10, and retain its fifth place in the UK ranking.

Vodafone remains the most valuable British brand in the Top 100 with a value of £26 billion. It is also the fourth most valuable telecoms brand in the world, following China Mobile and the two US giants AT&T and Verizon.

BT has joined the ranks of the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands for the first time: living, breathing proof of how investment in building a strong and sustainable brand drives business growth. The UK-based provider of global telecoms services entered the ranking with a brand value of £6.2 billion. At number 94 in the global Top 100, BT is also the seventh most valuable UK-based brand.

BT raised its profile worldwide in 2012 with its partnership of the Olympics and Paralympics at London 2012. In its flawless execution of the communications, BT helped the organisers achieve their ambition to deliver the most connected Games ever, while its excellent brand activation programme – consistent over several years – ensured standout visibility and association with the Olympics.

The brand’s Better Future strategy, in which it promises to use the power of communication to improve lives and ways of doing business, has also resonated with customers and shareholders.

Moving into the more emotionally engaging area of entertainment delivery, BT is soon to launch its new BT Sport channels, fronted by presenter-of-the-moment Clare Balding, and has just announced that BT Broadband customers will be able to watch them at no extra cost.

The entry of BT into the Top 100 reinforces the importance of brand as a source of sustainable competitive advantage for businesses.

Alongside its savvy strategic decisions, BT’s renewed focus on branding has seen it reap the rewards of building positive customer sentiment. Delivering a meaningful promise and setting itself apart from the competition enables a brand to capture five times more volume and command a 14% price premium, according to Millward Brown analysis.

Building a strong brand demands an understanding of consumers’ needs, and the ability to meet them, consistently, in a meaningfully different way, to stimulate the appeal and loyalty that will generate the greatest contribution to driving sales.

Meaningfully different brands are four times more likely to grow their market share – and this is something we’ve seen a number of UK brands pull off in the last year.

Overall, we are seeing a revival of the British brand and, as the UK comes out of this period of austerity, many brands are well poised for future growth.