Luxury Dominates First BrandZ™ Top 50 Most Valuable French Brands 2018 Ranking

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Louis Vuitton bags the top spot with Hermès in second place…

Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès and CHANEL dominate the first BrandZ™ Top 50 Most Valuable French Brands ranking released by WPP and Kantar Millward Brown, and made available to Brand Spur Nigeria, demonstrating the role that heritage plays in turbo-charging some of the biggest French brands.

The research reveals that France’s most valuable brands are incredibly well known and salient, but it also highlights a key challenge: they can be perceived as less innovative than some smaller French companies and foreign rivals.

Louis Vuitton topped the chart with a brand value of $35.5 billion, followed by Hermès at $26.0 billion. Personal Care brand L’Oréal Paris was close behind at $24.5 billion, with Orange at $17.9 billion and CHANEL at $13.4 billion. The top four brands also feature in the BrandZ Global Top 100 ranking published in June 2017.

The total brand value of the French Top 50 brands is $240.4 billion – some $6 billion more than the equivalent UK 2017 ranking – with the Luxury category accounting for $88.9 billion, followed by Personal Care at $45.4bn and Telecom Providers at $31.4bn. The presence of so many luxury brands, accessories, fragrance, and cosmetics names gives the ranking a uniquely French flavor with seven Luxury brands and eight Personal Care brands.

Many of these brands benefit from a century or more of heritage and have contributed hugely to France’s image on the international stage as a hub of beauty, fashion and quality craftsmanship. However, their success both globally and in their home market also highlights one potential weakness: a perceived lack of innovation in many of the country’s largest brands.

The solution will vary from brand to brand. For some, it could mean changing recipes, ranges, and designs, for others, it’s less about the product and more about the way the brand relates to consumers and projects its brand voice.

The advantages of being perceived as innovative are significant. The top third of brands perceived as innovative in the Top 50 by French consumers have an average brand value of $7.0 billion, just under two-and-a-half times that of the brands in the bottom third, which were valued at $2.9 billion on average.

David Roth, CEO EMEA and Asia, The Store WPP, commented: “France’s new political leadership hopes to reignite its economic growth and the country’s biggest brands can play a huge part in delivering that. If heritage can be combined with innovation, France’s world-leading brands will become even more impressive players at home and abroad.”