Robust methodology to grow Sri Lankan brands

Increasingly, Sri Lankan businesses looking to expand into new global markets understand that the strongest brands are grown from the inside-out. As they leave behind the certainties of their existing categories, success will depend on the collective strength of the company and a brand-led, purposive culture of achievement. Strong brands play this pivotal role; they connect to customers while also enabling leaders within an organisation to engage, empower, and motivate employees to champion the brand.

Increasingly, too, businesses are emphasising the strategic importance of identifying where the brand’s fundamental difference or value lies, and building capability to centre it within the organisation and drive meaningful business results. Slowly, but surely, we are seeing CEOs bring together disparate business units and functions from across the organisation to provide an integrative view of their role and performance in relation to customer needs and drivers, as well as the brand’s competitive position in the market.

In the post-2009 transitionary period we inhabit and operate within, change is the order of the day and the power of the brand is growing.

Interbrand Best Sri Lankan Brands therefore debuts at an opportune moment. It places Sri Lanka within the Interbrand Best Brands list, modelled on Interbrand Best Global Brands – the most prestigious table globally and the definitive guide to the world’s 100 most valuable brands. Now in its eighteenth year, Best Global Brands is based on a combination of unique attributes that contribute to a brand’s cumulative value and a tried and tested, globally respected, value- based methodology that has delivered results for the world’s, and Asia’s, largest brands such as BMW, Mercedes, P&G, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Kelloggs, Nike, Samsung, Toyota, and Thai Airways.

Over the past year, we have introduced this value-based methodology to some of Sri Lanka’s largest businesses, and more recently the Sri Lankan government, as we work with and gear up organisations to expand into global markets. Powerful processes and tools are being deployed to measure the ability of Sri Lanka’s most valuable brands to create loyalty and continue generating demand and profit in the future; like Brand Strength, which measures how strong a brand is across 10 key factors. Six of these – Authenticity, Relevance, Differentiation, Consistency, Presence, and Engagement – are visible externally, acknowledging the fact that great brands change the world. The remaining four – Clarity, Commitment, Governance, and Responsiveness – are internally driven, and reflect the fact that great brands start from within.

Most importantly, we now have a robust methodology to measure the performance of the Best Sri Lankan Brands against the accomplishments and benchmarks of the Best Global Brands, to learn from and grow global – in vision, ambition, potential, attitude, perspective, processes and standards – as our businesses go global and, ultimately, take the same strides as world giants like Apple, P&G, GE or IKEA.