Brands Brazil
By Maria Stadtmueller. Three Brazilian brands figure in the BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands 2011 report from WPP/Millward Brown. Oil company Petrobras, ranks 61 with two banks, Itaú (90) and Bradesco (98) claiming the others.
Three other Brazilian brands – personal care brand Natura, and two beer brands owned by AB InBev, Skol and Brahma – while not large enough to be included in the Top 100, still rank in the BrandZ list of the most valuable brands in Latin America.
The economic forces that helped the middle class expand also made the rich richer. “Brazilians continued to prefer international luxury brands – Brazil is the second largest market for Louis Vuitton – but local luxury brands also prospered,” says the report. “Möet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the French luxury conglomerate, agreed to purchase a major stake in Sacks, Brazil’s leading online retailer of cosmetics.”
The preference for international brands over Brazilian ones remains a residual insecurity from Brazil’s struggles as an emerging economy, the study says. In certain categories, though, imported brands hold minimal appeal compared with the well-established Brazilian leaders.
Brazlian consumers like a bargain, too. “Collective buying, an informal coping strategy perfected to retain buying power in an inflation-plagued economy, surged during the past 12 months in categories such as hotels, restaurants and beauty services, as brands like Groupon and a Brazilian entry, Peixe Urbano, formalised the practice.”
