China Mobile tops Chinese most valuable brand list

Millward Brown has unveiled a list of the Top 50 most valuable Chinese brands which together have a total value of $280bn (£177bn).

Bank of China
Bank of China

The BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands takes in 19 different categories, including banking, technology, retailers and food and beverage.

China Mobile takes the top spot and has also been in the BrandZ Global Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the past five years. The country’s main banks feature in the Top 10 alongside technology brands Tencent and Baidu.

Brands lower down the list that might be recognisable to western consumers include beer brand Tsing Tao (35) and Air China (13).

Millward Brown says that state-owned enterprises dominate the list and they benefit from strong government support, relatively fewer competitors and a growing commitment to brand building but they may find it harder to maintain their positions as increased competition unfolds in their sectors.

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The research company points out that brands in the packaged goods, beverages and retail sectors operate in very crowded market, where brand building can be crucial in differentiation and in this group, trust and product performance are key factors in successful branding.

The survey was commissioned by WPP Group. CEO Sir Martin Sorrell has long championed China as an engine of economic growth and a territory in which western companies should invest.

The BrandZ list combines financial data with consumer opinions on brands and represents this as a dollar value. The methodology includes the views of 35,000 Chinese consumers, while financial and market information is drawn from Bloomberg and DataMonitor.

See the full list below:

BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands
Rank Brands Brand value (USD millions) Brand Contribution
1 China Mobile 56,074 3
2 Industrial & Commercial Bank of China 38,090 2
3 Bank of China 22,344 2
4 China Construction Bank 21,676 2
5 China Life (insurance provider) 18,320 3
6 Agricultural Bank of China 16,494 2
7 Petrochina (oil & gas) 14,223 1
8 Tencent (internet service portal) 12,199 4
9 Baidu (search engine) 9,715 5
10 Ping An (insurance provider) 8,443 3
11 China Merchants Bank 6,924 2
12 Maotai (liquor producer) 5,790 3
13 Air China 5,542 3
14 China Pacific Insurance 3,545 2
15 Wu Liang Ye (liquor producer) 2,449 3
16 Lenovo 2,317 3
17 China Unicom 2,307 2
18 Suning (electrical appliance retailer) 2,203 2
19 BYD (car manufacturer) 2,114 1
20 Mengniu (dairy manufacturer / distributor) 2,070 4
21 China Southern Airlines 1,917 3
22 Chang Yu (wine producer and retailer) 1,823 4
23 Yili (dairy manufacturer / distributor) 1,773 4
24 Li Ning (sportswear manufacturer) 1,445 3
25 Midea (household appliances) 1,408 3
26 Shineway Group (processed meats) 1,405 3
27 Yunnan Baiyao (herbal remedy producer) 1,277 3
28 China Telecom 1,264 2
29 Haier (household appliances) 1,246 3
30 Yurun (processed meats) 1,176 3
31 Meters/bonwe (casual wear producer & retailer) 1,109 3
32 Gree (air conditioning manufacturer and retailer) 1,033 2
33 Bawang (herbal hair care products manufacturer) 1,015 1
34 Gome (electrical appliance retailer) 890 2
35 Tsingtao (beer producer) 864 4
36 Yanjing (beer producer) 770 4
37 999 (pharmaceutical manufacturer) 676 4
38 Hua Xia Bank 657 1
39 Snow (beer producer) 621 3
40 sina.com (web portal) 554 3
41 Tong Ren Tang (herbal remedy producer) 542 3
42 Bright (dairy manufacturer / distributor) 522 4
43 Anta (sportswear) 464 2
44 361° (sportswear) 322 2
45 Sinopec (oil and gas producer / distributor) 321 1
46 Hisense (household appliance manufacturer) 247 2
47 Founder (computer hardware) 185 2
48 Hui Yuan (soft drinks producer) 177 3
49 Fulinmen (cooking oil producer) 160 3
50 Great Wall (wine producer & retailer) 147 4