Brand Finance report: Malaysian banks see drop in brand value

A report by Brand Finance sees a drop in brand value rankings for all Malaysian banks except Maybank. This is compared to last year’s report.Samir Dixit, managing director, Brand Finance Asia Pacific, said “The most striking trend is that every single Malaysian brand has lost out on their market capabilities, whereas the rest of region is gaining.”Last year, CIMB was the number one bank on the brand value rankings. This year, Maybank received a AA+ Brand rating, and brand value calculated at USD 2,243 million - a 10% increase from last year's USD 2036 million. According to the Brand Finance report, “Maybank is now within arm’s reach to become the third most valuable bank brand in ASEAN” and is ranked 6th in Asia and 4th in ASEAN for the report.So what makes Maybank stand out from the pack?“Maybank’s brand success can be attributed to a combination of their strong and consistent focus on the brand and strong business performance," said Dixit.In the top 500 rankings, Maybank was ranked 91, up two spots from last year (93), beating out CIMB (101) in the top 100 table. CIMB dropped from nine spots from 92 to 101 this year.Aside from CIMB, other notable mentions in the rankings include Public Bank (150), RHB (211), AmBank Group(277), Hong Leong Financial (282) and Bank Islam (465).Dixit also warned that, “While CIMB had a lot of focus on branding and brand management during and soon after the crisis, that differentiation is fast fading and that is clearly reflected here. Though they still remain the strongest bank brand in Malaysia, that may not last for very long.”According Brand Finance, brand is defined as “a marketing related intangible asset including, but not limited to, names, terms, signs, symbols, logos and designs, or a combination of these, intended to identify goods, services or entities, or a combination of these, creating distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic benefits/value.”The following methodology was used for the rankings:In its report, Brand Finance calculates the values of the brands in its league tables using the ‘Royalty Relief approach’. This approach involves estimating the likely future sales that are attributable to a brand and calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for the use of the brand, i.e. what the owner would have to pay for the use of the brand—assuming it was not already owned.(Images from Brand Finance)