Godrej hires Brand Finance

After hiring Interbrand to revamp its corporate identity, the Godrej group has now mandated Brand Finance, a UK-based brand valuation firm, to undertake a valuation of its key consumer brands.

The firm has already submitted a valuation report on the Godrej Beverages and Foods (GBFL) brands such as Nutrine, Jumpin, Xs and Sofit, and will now begin work on the Godrej Consumer and Godrej Sara Lee brands.

Brand Finance executives claim this is the first instance of an Indian company undertaking such initiative for its individual brands. In earlier cases, conglomerates such as Tatas have mandated Interbrand to value the Tata brand.

Adi Godrej, chairman, Godrej group, declined to comment on the matter.

Group companies such as GBFL, which recently acquired brand such as Nutrine, have also signed up with Brand Finance to use brand scorecard, which will be a quarterly evaluation of brand performance.

"This is important as it gives us better insight on how to manage the brand," said A Mahendran, managing director, Godrej Beverages and Foods (GBFL).

Sources say the company is keen to ascertain the value that can be unlocked from its existing brands and unravel areas where the synergies between different group brands can be leveraged.

Mahendran said in the consumer products business, brands are the biggest assets which needed to be periodically valued, looking at aspects beyond just the financial performance.

This valuation exercise would be repeated after about two years to determine how the brand valuation and perception had changed over time.

Unni Krishnan, country manager-India, Brand Finance, said the valuation exercise took into consideration factors such as distribution, marketing and brand positioning along with financial metrics such as profitability, market share and returns on marketing investment.

So far, domestic companies normally undertake a valuation only if they are contemplating a stake sale or a sellout.

However, this is changing gradually with companies getting their brands valued largely to ascertain its brand equity, intangible value and establish parameters to determine brand health that go beyond market share.

The Godrej Consumer portfolio includes brands such as FairGlow, Cinthol and No 1 soap apart from Godrej hair dye and Ezee liquid detergent while the key Godrej Sara Lee brands are Hit and Good Knight.