China 100 2017 The annual report on the world’s most valuable Chinese brands March 2017 Foreword Contents steady downward spiral of poor communication, Foreword 2 wasted resources and a negative impact on the bottom line. Definitions 4 Methodology 6 Brand Finance bridges the gap between the marketing and financial worlds. Our teams have Analysis - China 100 8 experience across a wide range of disciplines from market research and visual identity to tax and Full Table (USDm) 14 accounting. We understand the importance of design, advertising and marketing, but we also Full Table (CNYm) 16 believe that the ultimate and overriding purpose of Understand Your Brand’s Value 18 brands is to make money. That is why we connect brands to the bottom line. How We Can Help 20 By valuing brands, we provide a mutually intelligible Contact Details 21 language for marketers and finance teams. David Haigh, CEO, Brand Finance Marketers then have the ability to communicate the What is the purpose of a strong brand; to attract significance of what they do and boards can use customers, to build loyalty, to motivate staff? All the information to chart a course that maximises true, but for a commercial brand at least, the first profits. answer must always be ‘to make money’. Without knowing the precise, financial value of an asset, how can you know if you are maximising your Huge investments are made in the design, launch returns? If you are intending to license a brand, how and ongoing promotion of brands. Given their can you know you are getting a fair price? If you are potential financial value, this makes sense. intending to sell, how do you know what the right Unfortunately, most organisations fail to go beyond time is? How do you decide which brands to that, missing huge opportunities to effectively make discontinue, whether to rebrand and how to arrange use of what are often their most important assets. your brand architecture? Brand Finance has Monitoring of brand performance should be the conducted thousands of brand and branded next step, but is often sporadic. Where it does take business valuations to help answer these questions. place it frequently lacks financial rigour and is heavily reliant on qualitative measures poorly Brand Finance’s recently conducted share price understood by non-marketers. study revealed the compelling link between strong brands and stock market performance. It was found As a result, marketing teams struggle to that investing in the most highly branded companies communicate the value of their work and boards would lead to a return almost double that of the then underestimate the significance of their brands average for the S&P 500 as a whole. to the business. Skeptical finance teams, Acknowledging and managing a company’s unconvinced by what they perceive as marketing intangible assets taps into the hidden value that lies mumbo jumbo may fail to agree necessary within it. The following report is a first step to investments. What marketing spend there is can understanding more about brands, how to value end up poorly directed as marketers are left to them and how to use that information to benefit the operate with insufficient financial guidance or business. The team and I look forward to continuing accountability. The end result can be a slow but the conversation with you. 2. Brand Finance AustraliaGlobalAirlinesChina 100 500 30 100 March 30February MarchFebruary 2017 20162016 2015 Brand Finance China 100 March 2017 3. Definitions Effect of a Brand on Stakeholders Definitions E.g. + Enterprise Value – the value of the Tencent entire enterprise, made up of Directors Potential Middle ‘Branded‘Branded multiple branded businesses Customers Managers Enterprise’Enterprise’ Existing All Other ‘Branded‘Branded + Branded Business Value – the Customers Employees Business’ E.g. Business’ WeChat value of a single branded business operating under the subject brand ‘Brand’ Contribution’ Influencers Production + Brand Contribution– The total e.g. Media Brand E.g. economic benefit derived by a WeChat business from its brand ‘Brand Value’ Trade Sales Channels + Brand Value – the value of the E.g. trade marks (and relating WeChat Strategic marketing IP and ‘goodwill’ Debt Allies & providers attached to it) within the branded Suppliers Investors business Branded Business Value Brand Contribution Brand Value Brand Strength A brand should be viewed in the context of the The brand values contained in our league tables In the very broadest sense, a brand is the focus Brand Strength is the part of our analysis most business in which it operates. For this reason are those of the potentially transferable brand for all the expectations and opinions held by directly and easily influenced by those Brand Finance always conducts a Branded asset only, but for marketers and managers customers, staff and other stakeholders about an responsible for marketing and brand Business Valuation as part of any brand valuation. alike, an assessment of overall brand contribution organisation and its products and services. management. In order to determine the strength Where a company has a purely mono-branded to a business provides powerful insights to help However, when looking at brands as business of a brand we have developed the Brand architecture, the business value is the same as optimise performance. assets that can be bought, sold and licensed, a Strength Index (BSI). We analyse marketing the overall company value or ‘enterprise value’. more technical definition is required. investment, brand equity (the goodwill Brand Contribution represents the overall uplift accumulated with customers, staff and other In the more usual situation where a company in shareholder value that the business derives Brand Finance helped to craft the internationally stakeholders) and finally the impact of those on owns multiple brands, business value refers to from owning the brand rather than operating a recognised standard on Brand Valuation, ISO business performance. the value of the assets and revenue stream of the generic brand. 10668. That defines a brand as “a marketing- business line attached to that brand specifically. related intangible asset including, but not limited Following this analysis, each brand is assigned We evaluate the full brand value chain in order to Brands affect a variety of stakeholders, not just to, names, terms, signs, symbols, logos and a BSI score out of 100, which is fed into the understand the links between marketing customers but also staff, strategic partners, designs, or a combination of these, intended to brand value calculation. Based on the score, investment, brand tracking data, stakeholder regulators, investors and more, having a identify goods, services or entities, or a each brand in the league table is assigned a behaviour and business value to maximise the significant impact on financial value beyond combination of these, creating distinctive images rating between AAA+ and D in a format similar returns business owners can obtain from their what can be bought or sold in a transaction. and associations in the minds of stakeholders, to a credit rating. AAA+ brands are exceptionally brands. thereby generating economic benefits/value”. strong and well managed while a failing brand would be assigned a D grade. 4. Brand Finance China 100 March 2017 Brand Finance China 100 March 2017 5. Methodology League Table Valuation Methodology Brand Finance Typical Project Approach Brand Finance calculates the values of the 2 Determine the royalty rate range for the respective brands in its league tables using the ‘Royalty brand sectors. This is done by reviewing comparable Relief approach’. This approach involves licensing agreements sourced from Brand Finance’s estimating the likely future sales that are extensive database of license agreements and other attributable to a brand and calculating a royalty online databases. Brand Equity Stakeholder Brand Inputs Performance rate that would be charged for the use of the 3 Calculate royalty rate. The brand strength score is Value Drivers Behaviour Contribution brand, i.e. what the owner would have to pay for applied to the royalty rate range to arrive at a royalty the use of the brand—assuming it were not rate. For example, if the royalty rate range in a brand’s already owned. sector is 1-5% and a brand has a brand strength The steps in this process are as follows: score of 80 out of 100, then an appropriate royalty 1 2 3 4 rate for the use of this brand in the given sector will Brand Audit Trial & Preference Acquisition & Valuation Modelling 1 Calculate brand strength on a scale of 0 to 100 based be 4.2%. Retention on a number of attributes such as emotional 4 Determine brand specific revenues estimating a connection, financial performance and sustainability, proportion of parent company revenues attributable Audit the impact Run analytics to Link stakeholder Model the impact of behaviour on to a specific brand. of brand understand how behaviour with core financial performance and among others. This score is known as the Brand key financial isolating the value of the brand 5 Determine forecast brand specific revenues using a management and perceptions link to Strength Index, and is calculated using brand data investment on behaviour value drivers contribution from the BrandAsset® Valuator database, the world’s function of historic revenues, equity analyst forecasts brand equity largest database of brands, which measures brand and economic growth rates. equity, consideration and emotional imagery 6 Apply the royalty rate to the forecast revenues to attributes to assess brand personality in a category derive brand revenues. agnostic manner. 7 Brand revenues are discounted post tax to a net present value which equals the brand value. Brand strength Brand Brand revenues Brand value index ‘Royalty rate’ How We Help to Maximise Value (BSI) 6. Build scale through licensing/franchising/partnerships Brand Strong brand investment 5.