By Kazi Raihan Abser
To celebrate the achievement and contribution of the brands, the Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF) in partnership with world’s leading brand research company Kantar Millward Brown Bangladesh and in association with The Daily Star recognized the most loved brands of Bangladesh at Best Brand Award Bangladesh 2016, held on 19th November, 2016 at the Hotel Le Méridien, Dhaka. It was the 8th edition of the endeavor.
The gala night celebrated the leading brands under 33 categories and also revealed the Overall Top 30 and Local Top 10 brands. The celebration also included special awards and recognition to the deserving brands.
THE CURTAIN LIFTS
The mesmerizing evening commenced as soon as Mr. Zunaed Rabbani, Master of the Ceremony (MC) took the stage and welcomed everyone to the celebration. His rejuvenating tone alleviated the tensed minds of the brand and marketing professionals who were eagerly waiting with excitement to know about the most loved brands of 2016.
PARTNERS AND PATRONS
8th Best Brand Award it is! It’s been more than a half-decade that BBF is recognizing the most loved brands of Bangladesh. The initiative of inspiring brands of Bangladesh like always has received unwavering love and support from the Bangladesh Business community as partners and patrons.
Best Brand Award 2016 has been organized in partnership with Kantar Millward Brown Bangladesh and in association with The Daily Star. The initiative was also supported by – Etihad Airways as Airline Partner, Le Méridien Dhaka as Event Partner, Rakeen Development Company Ltd. as Real Estate Partner, Marketing Society of Bangladesh (MSB) as Knowledge Partner,
GTV as Media Partner, Aamra Networks as IT Partner, Masthead PR as PR Partner, and WebAble Digital as Social Media Partner.
The magnanimous patrons of the celebration are – Bangladesh Edible Oil Ltd. (BEOL), Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd., Bikroy.com, BSRM, City Group, Gemcon Group, MAGGI Noddles, Marico Bangladesh Ltd., Pepsi, Polar Ice Cream, Reckitt Benckiser Bangladesh Ltd, RFL, Savlon, Shah Cement, Shwapno, Symphony, and the last but not the least Unilever Bangladesh Ltd.
THE EVENING COMMENCES
The award giving ceremony stared with the welcome speech of Ms. Nazia Andaleeb Preema, Visual Artist; Director, Bangladesh Brand Forum; & President, Women in Leadership (WIL). She exclaimed, “Tonight is about brands and celebration of brands. To me, actually it’s about celebration of love and connection. It is love which helps transform a mere product into a brand that touches our mind, heart and soul.” She concluded her speech with an urge to the brand and marketing professionals to love their brands more.
INSIGHT FROM KANTAR MILWARD BROWN BANGLADESH
With 41 years of brand equity, advertising and media research experience, Kantar Millward Brown is the world’s largest brand tracking provider. It works with many local and global brands – including 90% of the world’s leading brands. Kantar Millward Brown, Bangladesh is supporting most of the leading brands of Bangladesh from their end. Also Kantar Millward Brown conducts the country wide survey to screen out the most loved brand.
Ms. Khandoker Samina Afrin, Country Manager, Kantar Millward Brown, Bangladesh shared insights regarding the brands of Bangladesh in her speech. She congratulated to the brands who would be awarded and wished better luck to the aspiring brands. She also reaffirmed their commitment to influence the improvements of the Bangladeshi brands through Kantar Millward Brown, Bangladesh.
SEARCH FOR MOST LOVED BRANDS
An extensive countrywide research consisting of 4800 respondents was executed by Kantar Millward Brown, Bangladesh to acknowledge the brands that have established themselves to a meaningful height in terms of business value and contribution to consumer life.
The study was conducted in all eight divisions of Bangladesh covering both urban and rural areas among 18+ population. The finding represents entire nation in terms of age, gender, education, occupation, socio-economic class, and income.
The approach of this research was completely quantitative through face to face Pen and Paper Interviews (PAPI). It was conducted with structured questionnaire among randomly selected respondents at household level. The study covered 33 different categories. To capture the overall countrywide brand ethos, both in-category and across-category comparative context have been taken into account.
THE CATEGORIES
In this year’s Best Brand Award, the brands were awarded in 33 distinctive categories (as opposed to 35 categories for last year): 22 FMCG categories and 11 Non-FMCG categories. The five urban categories of Best Brand Award 2015 were omitted this year along with two other categories. Branded Sugar, Biscuit, Cement, Motorbikes, and Online Classified Website are the five new additions to Best Brand Award 2016.
REVEALING THE BESTS
Finally came the moment that all have been waiting for! Yes! The most loved brands of Bangladesh were about to be revealed. In each category, only the best brands were awarded while the 3rd and 2nd most loved brands were also announced.
Along with the top brands in each category, a list of Overall Top 30 Brands and Top 10 Local Brands were ranked in which Grameenphone got the Best Overall Brand 2016 award and Radhuni Masala got the Best Local Brand 2016 award.
Among three special awards, the Best Newcomer Brand award recognizes the brand that has been the best new entrant in the overall 30 award ranking compared to earlier years. Eight new brands have entered into the top 30 rankings this year. Among them, PRAN Frooto is the brand that has secured a strong position in its first entry in the top 30 ranking. The Best Newcomer Brand for 2016 is PRAN Frooto.
The Most Improved Brand award is given to the brand with the highest upward shift in ranking as compared to last year in the Overall Top 30 ranking. Nine out of the top 30 brands have improved their ranks in comparison to last year. The brand which has been able to improve its rank the most in 2016 is Super Fresh Fortified Soyabean Oil.
The Most Consistent Brand award emphasizes the performance of the brand that stayed the most consistent over the years in the Overall Top 30 ranking. Over the last 5 years, Horlicks has stayed in the top 5 of the Overall Top 30 ranking and bagged the title of Most Consistent Brand 2016.
MOST INFLUENTIAL BRAND OF BANGLADESH
Since inception, BBF is working towards transforming Bangladesh through applying branding ethos. In keeping with that motto, each year BBF gives special recognition “Most Influential Brand of Bangladesh”, to the brands that try to promote Bangladesh both locally and internationally. This year however, the brand was not a company or a product, but rather a person.
The Most Influential Brand of Bangladesh award was entitled to none other than our very own cutter master, The Fizz – Mustafizur Rahman for his outstanding contribution to uphold Bangladesh in International Cricket arena.
YOUTHFEST 2017: BIGGER AND BETTER
Amidst all the suspense and anticipation of the winning brands, Mr. Shariful Islam, Founder and Managing Director of Bangladesh Brand Forum, took the stage and made a couple of enthralling announcements.
First of all, he talked about “Bangladesh Youth Hub”, an online platform designed to prepare the youth for the next phase of human development and to help them grow and prepare for the future.
Following he announced about the upcoming, 2nd edition of ‘Bangladesh YouthFest’. Bangladesh Youthfest is a competition for the youth, where they have to give innovative ideas and feasible solutions to critical problems. YouthFest 2016 covered 7 divisions reaching more than millions of youth online and offline and generated more than 1000 ideas. The winners were delegated to attend Spikes Asia in Singapore. The coming Bangladesh YouthFest 2017 is promised to be bigger and better, with more challenge and better reward.
THE INSEPERABLE PARTNER
The Daily Star has been a core partner of the initiative not only this year, but also previous yours. Mr. Tajdin Hassan, Head of Marketing, The Daily Star took the stage and shared The Daily Star’s perspective of the association with the initiative. Mr. Hassan congratulated the winning brands for their outstanding performance in brand building. He also shared his insights about the arena of marketing and branding. He wished for the better future of the brands and development of branding practices in Bangladesh.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
There was one more surprise in store for the audience. BBF team had gathered all the insights of the winning brands and compiled it all into a beautiful magazine. It was a perfect souvenir for the night for everybody to go home with.
EVER BETTER
The lively presence of all the brands and their supporters made the evening worthy and memorable. It certainly encouraged the teams present there to DO more, BE more and BRAND more. It accentuated the night’s memory to a new level; memory that will certainly be relished for a long time.
