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From Checkers to the Springboks: South Africa's unique branding journey toward global influence

18 Mar 2025

What is encouraging is that as an emerging business innovator South Africa is very capable of building some world-beating brands.

America’s most profitable export since the end of World War 2 has been its “culture”.

John Wayne, blue jeans, Marlboro cigarettes, Elvis Presley, Mickey Mouse and Coca-Cola are a few of the US’s dazzling “soft power” winners that have wormed their way around the world and into the hearts, minds and pockets of generations of devotees of Americana.

From Cairo to Kathmandu the enduring perception of America as the land “where individual dreams truly do come true”, thanks almost entirely to its cultural exports, has played handsomely into that nation’s favour. The benefit to the long-term prosperity of the region is far beyond what can tangibly be measured in its balance of payments account, or of any other comparable numerical metric.

Images, ideas and artefacts from “the land of the free, home of the brave” have helped the world mentally affirm the pervasive perception that America is exceptional, desirable and worthy of deference.

Whether this outcome was because of a carefully calculated strategy, or thanks to complete random chance, doesn’t really matter. What is remarkable is that as a country they created considerable political, social and economic leverage through the production and commercialisation of fantastical stories.

Public relations

Worldbuilding pioneers like Walt Disney had a big part to play in the foundations of this approach. As did the founder of public relations in the 1920s, Edward Bernays, who also just happened to be Sigmund Freud’s nephew and a master at using his uncle’s research into psychology to influence consumer behaviour.

Brands built America: the question is, could this same “cultural influence” strategy be as effective anywhere else in the world?

Brand Finance recently published its annual South African Top 100 Brands ranking report. Thanks to a robust methodology that has been progressively fine-tuned since 2012, Brand Finance has been successful at quantifying the fluctuating value and strength of South Africa’s favourite brands, which also offers an alternate lens through which to identify potential opportunities and threats on our economic landscape.

Unlike the global brand rankings, which year on year seem to be in constant radical flux because of the rapid emergence of technology brands and rising power of Chinese trademarks, the South African brand landscape hasn’t seen nearly as much movement over the past 13 years.

MTN was the most valuable South African brand in 2012 (valued at a whopping $5.2-billion back then, while scoring a AAA- for strength) and is still ranked No 1 today (now valued at a significantly more modest $2.93-billion, together with an improved AAA rating).

The top 10 brands over the past decade are similarly little changed: all the usual local suspects, from the telecoms and banking sector, have made an annual pilgrimage on to this predictable scoreboard.

Remarkably, 70% of our most valuable brands are classified as part of the domestic services sector (banking, retail, insurance, telecoms and other commercial services), reflecting just how dependent the country has become on industries other than manufacturing.

This is somewhat depressing.

Unlike major economies in Europe, Japan or the US we don’t enjoy the benefits from strong product brands that appeal to markets outside of the country. From an “export-led future economic growth opportunity” perspective, this is a significant worry.

It’s obvious that this situation isn’t news, but the clear confirmation of this gaping void is enough to make you want to send the minister of Trade and Industry a clearly detailed memo highlighting his obvious policy blind spot. Structuring the economy to produce commodities from underperforming mega-industries isn’t going to magically create the quality of growth that is so desperately needed.

Standout performances

On a more positive note, what is encouraging is that as an emerging business innovator we are very capable of building some world-beating brands within these services categories.

Driven by almost unprecedented levels of customer advocacy, Checkers is the country’s strongest brand. Not only has it cracked the nod from the marketing gods for “breakthrough digital innovation of the decade” with its wildly popular Sixty60 shopping app, but its shopper loyalty programme, Xtra Savings, is easily the biggest, fastest-growing, most-loved scheme in the country.

According to the report, the Checkers brand is so strong it “outperforms the likes of Walmart in the US, Marks & Spencer in the UK and Coles in Australia”. Considering how much bigger these well-known global retailers are in comparison, that’s certainly an applause-worthy achievement.

Capitec’s brand value has increased by 81% since last year, thanks largely to its successful adoption of large numbers of new digital banking clients. For a 24-year-old company to be turning on that kind of market share growth, one has to stand back and admire the performance.

The digital-first, no physical branch fintech brand TymeBank was only launched in 2019 and is already ranked at No 46 on this year’s list.

In this short time the bank has earned customer accolades and an enviable reputation in the market for “transparency, ease of use and fairness”. It’s an encouraging proof of concept that an innovative approach can effectively fast-track the trajectory of a start-up on a mission to leapfrog unchallenged industry norms.

The takeaway is that our services offerings are punching well above their weight division.

The Springboks

Making their debut at No 50 in 2025 are the Springboks. And this is also the point where the thinking of this brief article ties back to the use of brands as tools of cultural influence beyond the borders of the country to create more favourable conditions for growth and opportunity.

There is no need to reiterate what the national rugby team has managed to achieve when it comes to nation building and the strengthening of the social compact over the past six years. But could “how they managed to do it” serve as a blueprint for South African brands that choose to leverage our nation’s cultural strengths to forge better goodwill and opportunity abroad?

Occupying the same strategic continuum as the United States, South Africa at its best, however, holds a reputational position that is the direct antithesis of America’s “individual aspiration wins all” approach.

“Moving forward together”, where the slow, sustainable progress of the collective overshadows the egocentric demands of the individual — is exactly the pragmatic brand playbook that unlocks success for us.

Drawing direct inspiration from our national rugby team, the focus should be on winning hearts and minds beyond our borders through our brand-building style and demonstrating that there is, indeed, a viable way to embrace the enormous strengths of “otherness” to create more desirable tomorrows that are both inclusive and motivating. DM

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Standout performances

The Springboks