Today’s blog post focuses on the top 3 most valuable Australian brands in 2021, as reported by adnews.com.au:
- Woolworths (woolworths.com.au);
- Telstra (telstra.com.au); and
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia (commbank.com.au).
Looking at the rankings over the past few years, we can see that times have shifted since 2019 when banks made up 4 of the top 6 positions. Comparing 2019 with this year we can see that Commonwealth Bank came in at number 1, Telstra at number 3 and Woolworths at number 5, whereas in the 2020 list these brands were ranked the same as 2021.
Regardless of past results, it can quickly be identified that these brands have something in common: they all have a strong online presence and support Australia’s growing digital economy with a domain name ending in .au. And like the majority of household names, these brands recognise the importance of building trust through customer engagement and establishing brand protection as ways to further add value.
Having a strong online presence
A strong online presence contributes to a brand’s value in many ways. As many of us quickly changed our weekly shopping habits in 2020, we were thankful for the ease and convenience of online shopping; and in 2021, this has not slowed down. This has meant that one of Australia’s largest supermarket chains is the most valuable brand in the country and with Telstra coming in at number 2 and Commonwealth Bank at number 3, we can begin to see that these brands have something in common; they all use a domain name that ends in .au, highlighting their Australian footprint and reminding shoppers of their national reach.
Building trust through customer engagement
Customer engagement provides brands with the opportunity to connect with consumers using tools including customised landing pages, email marketing, social media and video advertising. As marketing experts at Hubspot explain, by offering customers something of value beyond your products and services through various content marketing strategies, you are giving them an additional reason to think back to your brand. Using supermarkets or retailers as an example, this includes the updates we may receive keeping us informed of improvements in the online shopping experience, delivery process updates and special offer notifications.
Establishing brand protection
As we explain in this post on brand protection, it is important for brands to constantly monitor the market and consider investing in a brand protection strategy to stay ahead of competitors. This may mean registering the entire suite of .au domain names that include your brand name (e.g. example.com.au, example.net.au and others that may apply) as well as any other Top Level Domains that could impact you (e.g. example.info, example.pro etc) and monitoring the internet for mentions of your business. Larger companies may utilise the services of a dedicated brand registrar, such as CSC or MarkMonitor, who offer corporate brand protection services to manage entire domain name portfolios.
Along with their unique customer engagement efforts and brand protection strategies, we would like to reinforce the fact that Woolworths, Telstra and Commonwealth Bank all use a .com.au domain name as their go to online resource, which in itself signifies the power of having an .au presence. With .au, no one will question whether your business is really Australian or be unsure of the target market, so if you are considering launching your brand online, find out how to get started with an .au registrar today.
Have a question, comment or idea for a future blog post? Email us at blog@afilias.com.au today.