Growth cools for India’s top brands, but firms like Zomato, MakeMyTrip buck the slowdown

Zomato

A softening consumer environment has begun to reflect in India’s brand value charts.

India's most valuable brands reported a growth of 6% this year versus 19% in 2024, according to Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Indian Brands report.

The market research company values the top 100 Indian brands $523.5 billion in 2025, accounting for approximately 13% of the nation’s Gross domestic product (GDP).

There has been a deceleration in growth rate of Indian brands this year and the road ahead also looks tough, noted Soumya Mohanty, Managing Director & Chief Solutions Officer, South Asia, Kantar.

"It is not as easy as it used to be to grow brand value because of the slowdown in consumption growth. While the government has taken steps to boost consumption, brands won't see value growth just because they are present," she said.

Mohanty points to building brands on a strong consumer appeal, consumer equity. "Brands need to have deeper meaning, they need to connect better with consumers. It needs a slightly longer term thinking than what we have been seeing in the past. There is a lot of caution because brands have a sense that growth is no longer going to be as easy to get in India as it has been in the past."

She also emphasised on innovation to increase brand value growth.

"It is critical to innovate. Not just for technology brands which are anyway forced to innovate, many times because of the kind of disruptions they face. But also for normal day-to-day brands to not get stuck in there for what their current business is. They need to look for adjacencies," Mohanty added while giving the example of Zomato.

"Zomato is becoming more of a lifestyle brand around food. They also have the health settings and District is a master stroke," she said.

The food delivery firm is the fastest growing brand, climbing 10 places to rank 21 and nearly doubling its brand value to $6 billion with over a 69% year-on-year brand value growth.

By expanding beyond food delivery into adjacent lifestyle categories like seamlessly integrating its District by Zomato dine-out app, the brand has successfully tapped into growing consumer demand for convenience and value, the report said.

Among the top risers are also travel and luxury brands. India’s experience economy is accelerating, with luxury hotel brand Taj seeing over a 55% increase in brand value at $2.9 billion. Other brands also posted gains including airline IndiGo with 42% increase in brand value at $5.1 billion, online travel aggregator MakeMyTrip saw over 45% growth at $2.4 billion.

Automotive manufacturer Mahindra also increased its brand value by 53%, at $5.5 billion capitalising on rising demand for experience-led services such as off-roading drives and road trips tailored to SUV enthusiasts and adventure seekers.

Graham Staplehurst, Director, Kantar BrandZ said that the luxury category has grown but the China pullback and slowdown in economy has put the brakes on consumption.

He added that the Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven tech area has seen the biggest explosion of growth this year.

"In global rankings, we saw Chat GPT make an entry for the first time this year and that shows the biggest promise."

He, however, cautioned that some of the corporate valuations of AI-led firms are probably getting over inflated. "We may see a correction next year."

In India, the report mentions brands like Airtel that are driving disruption through innovation.

Airtel’s advancements in 5G, secure payments and fraud detection are redefining telecom, while MakeMyTrip’s AI-powered travel planning and flexible ‘Farelock’ feature are setting new standards in online travel, the report said.