H&M Europe's top retail brand

Brand consultancy company Interbrand revealed its first ever ranking of Europe’s Top Performing Retail Brands by brand value. The top 25 was announced by Jez Frampton, Group Chief Executive of Interbrand, at the second annual World Retail Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Swedish high-street chain H&M, ended as the number one with a value of €10.366bn. Other outstanding performers included the French-owned Carrefour (€6.620bn), Sweden’s Ikea (€6.516), the UK’s supermarket chain Tesco (€5.617bn), and department store Marks&Spencer (€5.100bn).

“Retail brands have the ultimate opportunity to create a chain of brand experiences through their environments, service standards as well as products and services. Our study shows the real value of getting this right for the business and the brand,” commented Jez Frampton. According to Interbrand’s research, top retailers generate value for their brands by understanding the importance of building and investing in their own brands. 60% of the retailers in the Top Performing study offer their own brands that contribute between 30-100% of their revenues.

Three of the top five brands exclusively offer their own brands. The research company also learned, that it’s valuable for retailers to know when to extend their brand into new categories and to transfer across markets into new service areas. Also, number one retailers like H&M realise that you have to design the right portfolio of store formats to maximize brand experience. Financial performance sets these retailers apart from their competitors and creates preference with their customers. To examine European retail brands, Interbrand divided the sector into three broad retail models: ‘aggregator brands’ such as Tesco, ‘own brands’ such as Zara, and ‘product brands’ such as Burberry. Interbrand then applied its own developed proprietary valuation methodology, to determine the brand’s contribution to the business and its financial value. This method examines brands through financial strength, customer selection and the revenue from the brand.

Source: Interbrand

Image: H&M