India’s leading brands witness 4% drop in value in 2022; TCS maintains the lead

New Delhi: India’s top 75 brands saw a 4% dip in brand value in 2022 to $379 billion amid economic uncertainties, according to researcher Kantar.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) maintained its lead position in Kantar BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands ranking for the second consecutive year, with a brand value of $43 billion. HDFC Bank, Infosys and Airtel also retained the top four spots, while State Bank of India (SBI) entered the list, Kantar said in a report released on Thursday.

These rankings are based on the opinions of over 127,634 respondents about 1,500 brands across 106 categories and is for 2022. Kantar assesses the brands based on participation on stock exchanges or privately-owned brands with publicly available financial statements, besides unicorns, based on the most recent publicly accessible valuations.

“India’s top 75 brands have combined brand value of $379 billion, a fall of 4% from 2022, a modest decrease considering the ongoing economic volatility across most of the world. The decline has been driven by brands in the business technology and services platforms category, which have a major presence in international markets and, therefore, have been impacted by global pressures, recession threats and geopolitical instability,” it added.

“It has been India’s decade. Our GDP has almost doubled with 82% growth, while world GDP grew at 30%. This delta is even more when it comes to most valuable Indian brands, which have almost quintupled in value, 4.9 times compared to the most valuable global brands, that have grown by 2.4 times. So, Indian brands are significant value creators for our economy. We expect this trend to accelerate in the next decade as Indian brands don’t just thrive in India, but also explore growth overseas in their quest to become true multinational giants,” said Deepender Rana, executive managing director, South Asia, insights division, at Kantar. It said overseas contributions for the top 30 Indian brands account for 31% of their brand value.

The automotive category produced the top 75’s two fastest risers—TVS, which ranked 51 with a brand value of $1.90 billion and Mahindra which ranked at 47 with a brand value of $2.01 billion and achieved the second-highest category growth at 19%.

“India’s automotive brands have quickly responded to changing consumer needs, notably the shift in preference from hatchbacks to SUVs, and the demand for electric vehicles,” Kantar said in a note. Meanwhile, rankings of 16 financial services brands reported a 6% jump in their brand value, thanks to the boom in digital banking, led by Axis Bank and ICICI Bank.

This year’s rankings saw the entry of four newcomers along with two re-entrants. Fintech company PhonePe entered the ranking at number 21, and fintech brand Cred ranked at 48 with a brand value of $2 billion also made its debut on the rankings along with photo and video sharing app ShareChat and entertainment platform Star.

2023 is the 10th ranking of India’s most valuable brands, during which time the top 50 have increased almost fivefold in value, from $69.6 billion in 2014 to $339.9 billion in 2023. 33 of the brands in the current top 75 were also in the 2014 ranking.

Meanwhile, Kantar said overseas contribution for the top 30 Indian brands accounts for 31% of their brand value, compared with 47% for Japan, 59% for the UK, and 85% for France. This has protected the ranking from the worst effects of international volatility, it said.