TCS most valuable Indian brand; HDFC Bank, Infosys in top 3

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) remains the most valuable brand in India in the year 2023, valued at $42.9 billion, down 6% compared to 2022, according to Kantar BrandZ Top 75 most valuable Indian brands report.

Financial services giant HDFC Bank and IT services major Infosys remain in the top three, with the former having a brand value of $33.6 billion (up 3%), while the latter at $24.1 billion(down 17%).

Telecom major Airtel followed them at the fourth stop, with $22.5 billion worth of brand value that surged 29% as compared to last year.

This year, the top 4 brands are unchanged.

PSU lender State Bank of India (SBI) has risen one position this year to take fifth spot and ICICI Bank is up three places to sixth, pushing Asian Paints down to seventh.

Reliance Jio is up two places, and Kotak Mahindra Bank and HCL Tech round out the top 10.

"There is remarkable stability in the India Top 75; 58 brands have been in the ranking consistently since at least 2019, and many of those for much longer," says the Kantar report.

The data shows the total value of the Kantar BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands is down 4% on 2022 levels, though a relatively small dip compared to the top 100 most valuable global brands that posted a collective 20% drop over broadly the same period.

Overall, the Indian brands have performed well compared to those in other markets. For example, the Kantar data shows China’s ranking fell 19% this year, Italy’s 19%, and the UK’s 14%.

In fact, the value of the top 30 Indian brands has now surpassed that of Japan (in 2022) and the UK (in 2022).

Looking at value growth not just over one year but several, the data suggests brand values flattened during the Covid period, then bounced high, only to correct due to external market and category forces.

Kantar explains why the Ieading Indian brands have proved so resilient over the past year, saying so many of the top 75 brands primarily serve a domestic consumer market. "Only 31% of the total Proportion of overseas contribution in the Top 30 among the India Top 75 ranking comes from international markets. This compares to 47% for the leading Japanese brands, 59% for UK brands and 85% for French brands."

There are four newcomers -- PhonePe, CRED, ShareChat, and Star -- to the Top 75 this year, and two brands (Bank of Baroda and MRF) have re-entered after some time away.

"PhonePe has quickly become India’s leading digital payment app, in a country where the preference for going cashless has accelerated at a tremendous pace. CRED, meanwhile, has been building its brand by challenging what ‘credit’ means in the minds of Indian consumers."

Globally, Apple remains the number one most valuable global brand, with a brand value of $880 billion, followed by Google (No.2; $578 billion) and Microsoft (No.3; $502 billion).