A tale of brand resilience
By Mark Terry. Last year, many car brands returned to health just a few years after disconnecting from government funding and purchasing schemes such as scrappage. However, consolidation left fewer brands in North America and Europe, says the BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands 2011 report from WPP/Millward Brown.
“The surviving Western brands probably are here to stay, and competition is expected from China and other fastgrowing markets,” says the report. “Most Western car producers looked to China for long-term growth as the country’s sales are expected to reach 30 million units by 2015, or about twice the size of the US car market. Volkswagen remained China’s most popular car brand, but others have set up joint ventures in the country and at least one European heritage brand, Volvo, is now Chinese-owned.”
The world’s most valuable car brand? That’s Toyota, which rebounded 11% in brand value – no mean feat after the company had to work to reassure the public following the recall of almost 8 million cars with suspected technical problems.
“Toyota has been a very interesting brand case study,” says Chris Hunton, CEO team Land Rover/WPP account leader, Y&R. “When you see the depths to which Toyota had sunk, the concern that was being exhibited in the US about safety problems. And when you compare that with the way the brand performed in terms of sales at the end of the year, Toyota is a textbook example of brand resilience. In the sense that, if you invest in the brand over a number of years, actually it does ensure that you’re able to withstand most things that happen to you in the marketplace.”
