National telecoms carrier, Globacom, has been named one of the six most admired brands in Africa. This is the outcome of a continental survey conducted by African Business, one of the world’s most authoritative magazines on African business.
The report was published in the latest edition of the London-based magazine. It said Globacom polled a total Admiration Score of 345, pushing it up on the scale as one of the six most valued brands on the continent ahead of many multinationals. Indeed, it is the only company in the topmost ladder that has its root in Nigeria.
A statement released by the organizers of the annual brand rankings added that the results were arrived at after a rigorous, comprehensive exercise. Signed by Rupert Kemp, Valuation Director, Brand Finance Africa, and Karin Du Chenne of TNS, the magazine’s partners on the project, it added that the process integrated consumer research and financial valuation.
According to the magazine, “In the research phase, Brand Africa’s partner, TNS Global, the world’s largest information research firm, in partnership with Geopoll, the leading mobile survey platform with a database of nearly 200 million users in emerging markets, set out to identify the most admired local and global brands in Africa.”
They further explained that a representative sample of eight countries, covering the major Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regions were selected for the survey. These included Ghana, and Nigeria for West Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for East Africa, DR Congo for Central Africa, and Mozambique and South Africa for Southern Africa.“Collectively, these countries represent 51 percent (477 million) of Sub-Saharan Africa population and 67 percent ($1.065 trillion) of Africa’s GDP…Using Geopoll’s sophisticated mobile SMS technology for data collection, individuals aged 18 and older in these countries were asked to rank their top three ‘most admired global or local brands’ in order of first to third,” the organizers said.
According to the magazine, the process yielded 8,600 brand mentions, representing over 2,800 brands as each respondent provided a list of three brands each. Subsequent analysis of the coded data and calculation of the scores of each brand by TNS provided the list of the top 100 most admired brands in Africa. A closer look at the table indicated that Globacom outperformed hundreds of older brands across many sectors of the economy in the continent.
Globacom bagged several awards from various local and international bodies in 2014 on account of its revolutionary and innovative products and services. It was named one of the ten Most Admired Brands in Nigeria at the BusinessDay Nigeria’s Top 100 Most Respected Companies Awards event. Earlier last year, Glo was similarly ranked amongst the Top Five Most Valuable Brands in Africa by the continent’s high profile publication, Brand Africa.
The company has, since 2003 when it rolled out, led the telecoms industry in the introduction of consumer-focused innovative products and services, making it possible for Globacom to record many firsts in the telecoms industry. The operator introduced several technological innovations like per second billing, GPRS, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), 3G Plus, Blackberry service, Vehicle Tracking, Mobile Banking, Mobile Internet and Magic Plus, among others.