Top 50 Brands Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Taiwo Oluboyede, believes insufficient brand information in the country is a major hindrance to quality research.
He made the point at the 2015 Top 50 brands event in Lagos where 50 top brands were unveiled.
“A major limitation to our processes is unavailability of sufficient information, particularly for the quantitative review of brands; hence we rely on the public perception from consumers in arriving at the top 50.
“We are working with several other organisations to achieve this and hopefully we will be able to have the top 50 brands listed in terms of asset base and consumer perception in the very near future,” he enthused.
Criteria used to select the brands included brand identity and retention, market acceptability, corporate social responsibilities, customer service delivery, visionary and innovation, and popularity evaluation.
The 50 top brands selected this year have weathered the storms over the years, and are setting the pace in their various industries.
This year’s exercise also included 10 Brands to Watch – those with positive and promising outlook with the possibilities of being reviewed for the 50 top brands class soon.
“They are brands with compelling presence and significant brand building activities. We hope this exciting block will be joining the top 50 league table very shortly.”
The 10 Brands to Watch include Heritage Bank, Huawei, SABMiller, Daraju Industries, Startimes, Jumia, Konga, CWG, Tecno, and Waka Now.
Oluboyede said the categorisation and attempt to value brands in Nigeria has become very important, particularly now that the country is becoming a centre of attention in terms of investment globally.
“We have a fast growing economy with budding middle class, it is important therefore to identify and categorise these major brands.
“We are also helping the brands and their investors to have an idea of the worth of their brand from consumer’s perspective. We are creating an information platform where we readily provide information on these major brands.”
Twenty six of the 50 top brands for 2015 are home grown (52 per cent) while multinationals are 48 per cent.
“This is a positive improvement over the previous exercise. While this is not our target; it is good to note that Nigeria based brands are giving good account of themselves.”
The financial sector has 24 per cent of the top 50 brands, followed by food and beverages with 18 per cent.