Online and offline brands deliver on customer demand for ‘practical and quirky’ products while offering a first-class customer service with international appeal

Retail is the fastest rising and best represented category in the BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Dutch Brands ranking, with seven brands delivering a 53% increase in total category brand value to $6.39 billion.

Now in its second year, the study by WPP and Kantar tracks the worth of the most valuable brands in the Netherlands.

Budget chain store Action is the fastest growing brand in this year’s Top 30. A 122% increase in brand value to $1.12 billion sees it rise four places to No.13, due to its strong brand and international expansion programme. Action is the second highest retail brand in the ranking after global convenience store Spar (No.10, $1.98 billion).

The retail category’s overall value has been boosted by two newcomers to the ranking, ecommerce¹ companies CoolBlue (No.16, $795 million) and Bol.com (No.18, $653 million). CoolBlue prides itself on going above and beyond with its customer service such as free delivery, installation and testing and recycling. All-rounder Bol.com, the Dutch equivalent of Amazon (the BrandZ Global No.1 brand), has cemented its position as the leading online shop in the Netherlands with initiatives such as providing a third-party platform to other online retailers and two-hour delivery slots in some locations.

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Integrating retail and technology also proved a winning combination for Dutch brands. Ranked at No.12, online food delivery company, Thuisbezorgd.nl (known globally as Takeaway.com) has increased its brand value by 52% to $1.59 billion. This is thanks to its expansion into four new markets and to the acquisition of Delivery Hero in Germany. Grocery brands Albert Heijn (No.15, $965 million) and Jumbo (No.20, $507 million) have also kept pace with changing customer demand, using initiatives such as the continued expansion of online ordering, home delivery and collect-in-store services, along with an increased focus on fresh convenience food.

No.1 in the ranking is energy company Royal Dutch Shell, which retains the top spot with a value of $19.02 billion. Beer brand, Heineken remains at No.2 ($12.59 billion) and Booking.com at No.3 ($12.20 billion).

The overall value of the BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Dutch brands remains fairly static at $92 billion (down 1% from last year). During that period the total share price for these brands outperformed the Amsterdam Exchange Index (AEX25) by 28%, proof that investing in strong brands can deliver significant shareholder returns.

BrandZ, the world’s largest brand equity study, is the only brand valuation ranking to combine rigorous analysis of financial data with in-depth consumer research to determine the value the ‘brand’ brings to businesses and their shareholders. Over the past 20 years, BrandZ has interviewed over 3.7 million consumers from 51 markets around the world, including 32,300 from the Netherlands.

The 2020 BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Dutch Brands

David Roth, CEO, The Store WPP EMEA and Asia and Chairman of BrandZ said: “An independent outlook and willingness to do things on its own terms sees the Netherlands continue to punch above its weight at many levels. This approach is reflected by Dutch businesses; given the flexibility to create and deliver initiatives that cement them as firm favourites in the minds of the consumer, they demonstrate the importance of strong brands to the Dutch economy.”

The Top 30 Dutch brands also have a strong global footprint, scoring highly on the measure of overseas exposure; three quarters of the total value of this year’s ranking came from outside the Netherlands, with brands such as Action and Takeaway.com fuelling this trend.

Bram van Schaik, CEO, Kantar Insights Division, Netherlands added: “Fears that Dutch retailers would be superseded by the corporate titans that have become part of everyday life in many other regions are, so far, unfounded. Much of that is down to Dutch brands’ inherent desire and ability to understand their local market and meet the needs of consumers. The resulting focus on practical, cool and quirky offerings, accompanied by high standards of customer service, means these brands also appeal to the global market.”

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Other highlights in the BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Dutch Brands report include:

• Brands with meaning: Strong on affinity and meeting the needs of customers, Dutch brands are the most meaningful in Europe; their BrandZ index score (where the average is 100) increased to 124 (from 119 last year) and compares to 122 for the top 30 brands in the BrandZ Global ranking. Key examples are Bol.com (which scores 194 on the meaningful index), airline KLM (No.22, $468 billion) with a score of 188, coffee company Douwe Egberts (No. 21, $481 million) with 165 and Albert Heijn, which scores 158.
• Innovation for growth:  Consumer perception of how a brand is ‘shaking things up’ is significantly higher for the top risers in the ranking than for those that are flat or declining. This confirms the important role that innovation plays in a brand’s capacity to grow in value, although any innovative initiatives must be meaningful to consumers to have impact.
• Banking sector resilience: Global macro-economic challenges have seen Dutch banks face the same pressures as financial institutions around the world.  However, with a total value of $15.59 billion, the category is still the second most valuable in the ranking (behind the $19.02 billion energy sector) and, with most banks retaining their core brand strengths across many BrandZ metrics, the sector is well-placed to remain a vital part of the Dutch economy.
• New insight for brand and media strategy: The 2020 BrandZ Most Valuable Top 30 Dutch Brands report includes a new section that ranks media brands (both local and global) in terms of their value to Dutch consumers. This will be used to provide additional insight and context to both advertisers and media owners when developing brand strategies. The five categories are Magazines, Music & Radio, News, Online Sharing and Video, and key findings include: Netflix is the No. 1 media brand; NOS is the strongest Dutch media brand; 6 out of the top 10 are video platforms; and 4 out of the top 10 are global media brands.

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