Who could forget the “I’m on a horse” television advertisements for Old Spice starring Isaiah Mustafa.
The brand’s savvy advertising campaigns have delivered dividends for its parent company, Procter & Gamble, as it has entered this year’s Brand Finance’s Cosmetics 50 at number 36.|
Brand Finance Chief Executive David Haigh said “Perceptions of the Old Spice brand have been transformed in the last few years, almost entirely thanks to the advertising phenomenon that is ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’. From being regarded with, at best, affectionate nostalgia, Old Spice is now one of the most highly sought after men’s grooming brands.”
Old Spice has a brand value of USD853 million well behind L’Oreal which for the second year in a row, is the world’s most valuable cosmetics brand. It has a brand value of more than USD10 billion.
L’Oreal is the only cosmetics brand and one of only 11 brands from any sector (including Google, Ferrari, Rolex and Hermes) to have been awarded the AAA+ brand rating, similar to a credit rating. This makes it one of the most powerful brands in the world, according to Brand Finance.
But the value and power of a brand is not measured only by its consumer appeal. A brand or trade mark’s ability to generate revenue through licensing or as part of a merger or sale of business are crucial to its value.
Without an effective strategy to legally protect brands through trade mark registrations in key markets, businesses both large and small will find it difficult to not only protect and enforce their trade marks but to derive full value from the asset.
This is why companies with large portfolios of brands spend a great deal of time and money protecting and enforcing their trade marks.
For example, L’Oreal which is the parent company with the most valuable collection of brands in the Top 50 with L’Oreal Paris, Garnier, Lancome, Maybelline, The Body Shop, Vichy and Biotherm has these brands registered as trade marks in Australia and other key markets.
America’s most valuable cosmetics brand, Avon, also has registrations for its brand in key market. The brand was a strong performer this year in the Cosmetics 50 jumping from sixth place to second place with a brand value of more than USD6.3 billion. The brand has staged a strong recovery. Its brand value fell 35% between 2012 and 2013. But CEO Sheri McCoy’s cost-saving strategies has seen the beginnings of a turnaround. Brand value is up 24% to $6.84 billion while the brand has been strengthened, and has been upgraded by Brand Finance from AA to AA+.
Pantene, Nivea and Dove round out the top five most valuable brands for 2014.
The Brand Finance Cosmetics 50 is an annual study conducted by brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. The study evaluates cosmetics brands to identify the most valuable and most powerful.
Brand Finance calculates brand value by determining the royalties a corporation would have to pay to license its brand if it did not own it, known as the ‘royalty relief’ method. As well as a brand value, each of the 50 brands is accorded a brand rating; a benchmark of the strength, risk and potential of a brand relative to its competitors, expressed as a letter code from AAA+ to D, similar to a credit rating.
