Australias Most Valuable Brands Announced

Brands with bucks: Australia's most valuable brands

By James Thomson from smartcompany.com.au

Telstra has shrugged off recent controversial service records to take the title of Australia's most valuable brand. Brand management agency Interbrand valued the telecommunication giant's brand at $9.7 billion.

Telstra was ranked ahead of Commonwealth Bank (which was valued at $7.1 billion), National Australia Bank ($5.1 billion), Westpac ($4.8 billion) and supermarket giant Woolworths ($4.6 billion).

Interbrand says it looked at three factors when valuing a brand; financial factors, the importance of the brand in driving consumer selection, and the ability of the brand to drive future earnings through customer loyalty, retention and repurchasing.

While Telstra has had its fair share of controversies in recent years - including pitched battles with the Federal Government, problems over executive pay and customer service complaints - Interbrand said Telstra's brand was the most valuable because of its "ability to tailor its offering; it is the only media and information services company in Australia that provides its customers with a truly integrated telecommunications experience".

Damian Borchok, Interbrand Australia managing director, says special attention had been given to the ability of companies to withstand the downturn.

"The ability to create business opportunities in the economic turndown is a representation of a strong brand. One strategy to help growth in the current economic climate is for brands to look for business opportunities globally.

"Many of the Australian brands featured in the rankings are aggressively seeking to expand away from Australian shores into larger and more lucrative overseas markets."

The Top 20
(rank, company, sector, value $m)


Telstra - Telecommunications $9700m
Commonwealth Bank - Banking $7100m
NAB - Banking $5100m
Westpac - Banking $800m
Woolworths - Retail $4600m
Macquarie Group - Banking/Financial Services $3200m
ANZ - Banking/Financial Services $3100m
Billabong - Apparel $2200m
St George - Banking/Financial Services $1900m
Harvey Norman - Retail $1300m
Australia Post - Postal and Logistics $900m
David Jones - Retail $760m
Myer - Retail $670m
Flight - Centre Travel $630m
Crown - Gaming $560m
Ansell - Manufacturing $500m
Computershare - Share Registry Services $380m
Origin - Utilities $220m
JB Hi-Fi - Retail $190m
Bendigo Bank - Banking/Financial Services $150m