PLDT, with a brand value of $2.5 billion, is the most valuable Filipino brand, according to a new report by Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy.
PLDT’s brand value grew marginally by 2 percent, as revenue from data services increased, but traditional phone call volumes declined.
Brand value is defined as the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market. Brand strength is the efficacy of a brand’s performance on intangible measures relative to its competitors.
Every year, leading brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance puts 5,000 of the world’s biggest brands to the test, and publishes around 100 reports, ranking brands across all sectors and countries. The Philippines’s top 10 most valuable and strongest brands are included in the inaugural Brand Finance Philippines 10 2022 ranking.
Other top Filipino brands in the ranking are Globe Telecom ($2.07 billion), BDO ($1.45 billion), Bear Brand ($1.17 billion), Bank of the Philippine Islands ($1.16 billion), Metrobank ($1.09 billion), Jollibee ($1.01 billion), Ayala Land ($680 million), SM Prime (673 million) and Meralco ($664 million).
As the leading Filipino telecommunications utility, PLDT aims to serve Filipinos with a wide range of telecommunications services across both wireless and wired services. This year, PLDT is serving an increasing number of fixed line and broadband services, but subscriber numbers for such services are dwarfed by the number of mobile users across the Philippines.
In mobile services, strong competition and challenging market conditions are causing difficult times as the world looks to a post-pandemic future.
“As we look to a post-pandemic future, brands are likely to be increasingly important to the economic prosperity of the Philippines. PLDT is the most valuable Filipino brand and has further opportunities to grow as it improves data services in the future,” said Alex Haigh, managing director of Brand Finance in Asia Pacific.
In addition to brand value, Brand Finance determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity and business performance. Compliant with ISO 20671, Brand Finance’s assessment of stakeholder equity incorporates original market research data from over 100,000 respondents in more than 35 countries and across nearly 30 sectors.
PLDT’s Brand Strength Index score of 88.4 out of 100 and corresponding AAA brand rating reveal that in addition to being the most valuable Filipino brand, it is also the strongest Filipino brand. The brand known for its extensive fiber optic backbone is doing well to meet the wireless service needs of the Philippines.
PLDT was also recognized for its excellence in financial performance, management team excellence, investor relations and corporate social responsibility by Asiamoney. The pandemic has significantly increased demand for data services, and with PLDT consistently named the Philippines fastest broadband provider, PLDT remains the top choice when needing strong digital support.
Property developer SM Prime (brand value up 22 percent to $673 million) is the fastest-growing Filipino brand in the ranking. As a leading integrated property developer, growing domestic demand contributed to its growth.
SM Prime’s offices, hotels and convention centers also continued to contribute to its revenue growth and the brand continues to work with the Filipino government to serve the nation as it looks to a post-pandemic world.
The telecoms industry enabled communication for Philippine businesses from the start and right through to the aftermath of the pandemic with brands in this industry increasingly contributing to the Philippine economy. PLDT and Globe Telecom (brand value down 2 percent to $2.1 billion) lead at the top of the Filipino brand value rankings, with the two brands accounting for more than a third of the value of the top ten Filipino brands.