4As on building brands
The Star
November 20, 2007

By RACHAEL KAM

PETALING JAYA: Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) aims to give impetus to local companies to focus on brand building through a national brand valuation study called Malaysia's Most Valuable Brands (MMVB).

President Datuk Vincent Lee said the study aimed to create awareness of the importance of brand building among local companies and encourage those outside the top 30 list to be more aggressive in building their brands and getting a place in the list next year.

“The only way to encourage local companies to build strong brands is to do brand evaluation. This is not an award but recognition. This is the time we want to push our local top brands to compete globally,” he told StarBiz after leading global brand consultancy Interbrand unveiled the league table at a press conference recently.

This is the first index of top 30 MMVB, a joint effort by 4As and Interbrand.

“Obviously, local companies have the financial resources and expertise. With the help of Interbrand, a lot of these brands can compete in the world within a short period of time; we can be top in Asia. Hopefully within a decade, some brands will go to the top 100 of the world global brands.

“The study must act as a catalyst to inspire the big players in this country to work towards to being in the global top 100 brands.”

Lee said the top five brands had each been valued at over US$1bil (RM3.35bil) would have the potential to make it to the 100 global brands.

Maybank, as the top of 30 of Malaysia's most valuable brands, with a brandname worth RM9.6bil (US$2.7bil), followed by Public Bank at RM6.9bil, Maxis (RM5.3bil), Genting Bhd (RM4.6bil) and Celcom (RM4bil).

Although next year's study has yet to commence, 4As and Interbrand see DiGi, Genting, CIMB and AirAsia as the potential at the top five ranking.

Lee said DiGi's potential was due to its incredible financial results for the last one year; Genting in making big leaps in the region's gaming sector; CIMB in seeing tremendous growth due to its merger with Southern Bank Bhd; and AirAsia, for having covered more routes, built up its brand and has reported strong financial results.

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