Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has maintained its leading position for the second consecutive year in the tenth anniversary edition of the Kantar BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands Report, with a brand value of $43 billion. Despite a challenging year for the business technology sector as a whole, TCS continues to effectively tap into the global demand for digital transformation. HDFC Bank, Infosys, and Airtel also held on to the top four spots after TCS, while State Bank of India climbed one spot to break into the top five.
ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Jio, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HCL Tech were the others in the top ten list. Collectively, India’s top 75 brands possess a combined brand value of $379 billion.
“This is 4 percent lower than the value of the top 75 a year earlier and reflects the strain that businesses and consumers have been under in recent times – a perfect storm of supply chain challenges, rising interest rates, and market uncertainty. By comparison, the top 100 most valuable global brands declined in value by 20percent between 2022 and 2023. In this context, and given that so many of India’s most valuable brands serve a global market, a dip is to be expected,” the report said.
The automotive category produced the top 75’s two fastest risers: TVS and Mahindra and achieved the second highest category growth at 19 percent.
TVS gained 59 percent in value and leapt 24 places thanks to a number of successful product launches and a 10-year partnership with BMW that gives it leverage in markets such as Europe, the US and Canada. Mahindra, which grew its value by 48 percent, has made itself incredibly meaningful in Indian consumers’ eyes, and has also significantly boosted its salience.
The ranking’s sixteen financial services brands contribute the biggest chunk of its total value. They grew 6 percent, thanks to the boom in digital banking, led by Axis Bank and ICICI Bank. Telecom providers also performed strongly, resulting in a 17 percent rise in total brand value. Airtel took full advantage of the end of the price wars to focus on what makes it special and relevant to Indian consumers’ lives. This included offering differentiated digital services, such as the Xstream entertainment app and Wynk music app.
As per the report, Airtel has also successfully leveraged the rapidly increasing demand among businesses for data and connectivity related solutions, and digital products that enable the delivery of an enhanced omni-channel customer experience.
There are four newcomers to the 2023 Indian brand ranking, plus two re-entrants. PhonePe – the highest entry at the twenty first position– has quickly become India’s leading digital payment app by investing heavily in the strength of its infrastructure, building connections with partner banks, and developing a huge network of merchant acceptance points. Also making their debut are fintech brand Cred at forty-eight, photo and video sharing app ShareChat at sixty-seven and entertainment platform Star at seventy-one. Bank of Baroda and MRF re-enter the ranking after some time away.
“There is great diversity within the India top 75: they are a combination of established names and dynamic young brands, both global and local in footprint. What they have in common is their ability to be essentially Indian. Through a deep and detailed understanding of consumers in the market, and adopting the local culture and ethos, even huge international brands are seen and cherished as ‘homegrown’. The trust and loyalty this engenders has helped Indian brands to suffer less and recover more quickly from the storms that have buffeted them over the past 10 years,” said Soumya Mohanty, managing director and chief client officer- South Asia, insights division, Kantar.