Brand Finance launches ‘Brand Ratings’ scheme

Brand Finance plc, the independent intangible asset valuation and brand strategy firm, operating in Sri Lanka as Brand Finance Lanka, announced its ‘Brand Ratings’ scheme whilst certifying seven well known Sri Lankan brands at an event held at Hilton Residencies recently. Each of the brands that received the Brand Ratings certificates are listed in “Sri Lanka’s Most Valuable brands’ which was published in LMD in March 2007.

Singer (AA rating), Dialog (AA rating), Ceylinco Insurance (AA- rating), Cargills, Food City (A + rating), The Finance (A + rating), Union Assurance (BBB rating) and Nations Trust bank (B+ rating) received the ratings certification status.

Ruchi Gunewardene the Managing Director of Brand Finance Lanka announced that the ratings were to be further strengthen through consumer based market research to enable a more comprehensive and fact based analysis to be carried out. TNS Lanka will be the research partner for this project.

“This would enable brands to benchmark themselves against the top performing brands and also against their direct competitors, and by having access to the underlying market data, management would be able to not just track performance overtime, but also take timely action,” he said adding that a simple mechanism which functions as an annual check up – equivalent to your annual health check- on what is possibly one of the most important assets of the company – your brand. He said that Brand Finance’s Brand Ratings are conceptually similar to company credit ratings, certifying the health of the brand and enabling brand managers to make strategic decisions based on the findings.

He said this methodology covers a whole spectrum of categories of brands, from fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) such as milk and soap to motor vehicles to hotels to financial services and so on. “What we have here is a brand rating system focused on creating shareholder value by delivering a tracking mechanism based on consumer and business demand considerations,” he said.