Reliance ranked No 2 brand globally after Apple Inc

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries has been ranked second biggest brand after Apple on the FutureBrand Index 2020. “This year’s highest entrant at number two, Reliance Industries excels on every attribute,” FutureBrand said, releasing its 2020 Index.

One of the most profitable companies in India, Reliance is, “very well respected” and “seen as behaving ethically” as well as being associated with “growth”, “innovative products” and “great customer service”, it said. “In particular, people have a strong emotional connection with the organisation.”

FutureBrand, which is a global brand transformation company, said part of Reliance’s success could be attributed to Mukesh Ambani’s recasting of the firm as a one-stop-shop for Indians. “The chairman built on the existing petrochemicals business, transforming it into a digital behemoth designed to meet every customer need.

Reliance Jio was at 3rd position in last year’s survey and was beaten by Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.

Meanwhile, all top ten companies in the survey are in the technology space, namely, Paytm, Samsung and Amazon included.

Talking about the indigenous companies, Vivek Gupta, Managing Director, Ipsos India, said that it is tough for local brands to bag and maintain a top 10 ranking. “Jio, a homegrown brand has shown resilience and has moved up a notch in the ranking. While brand relevance is important, it is difficult to hold on – influence is hard to get and easy to lose,” Gupta said.

The others on the survey list are Vijay Shekhar Sharma founded Paytm on third spot, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook on fourth, Amazon on fifth, South Korean mobile and tech giant Samsung on sixth and Bill Gates’ Microsoft on seventh, Airtel on eighth, Flipkart on ninth and Apple’s iPhone stood at the tenth position.

Four out of ten popular brands are homegrown, as shown in the survey.

“The top 5 spots in the survey have been taken by a mix of global brands as well as local (native) brands – homegrown mobile service provider to handset marketer, Jio, and the digital wallet to e-commerce company Paytm,” Ipsos survey said.