Brand Price-Tag | Equity Evaluation
Brand investments’ figures allocated within the financial records of business outgoings usually bring to mind heavy-weight marketing budgets that mysteriously dissolve in the ocean of launches, PR, advertisement, media production, collateral or event sponsorship. For my fellow marketers and visual identity consultants brand investment budgets or brand activation funds stand for a specific set of projects that support an organisation in its performance, ensuring that the brand pledge made by a business is consistent, authentic and well-aligned with its core vision and corporate objectives. For the rest of the entrepreneurial world, brand investments might be perceived as an enigmatic “must-haves” that rarely can be entirely comprehended and evaluated in terms of its direct impact translated into the language of the value that brand investments contribute to the overall equity of a business |
A brand, simply put, is the face a business presents to the world. With its full make-up goodies bag containing brand colours, logotypes, typefaces, tone of voice, storyboards, brand ambassadors and visual associations initiatives, a brand symbolises the value that a business offers to the outside and the inside world { THINK: employees as your brand guardians; THINK: customers as your brand evangelists; THINK: competitors as your brand PR team … tip: give them reasons to follow and/or copy your innovative steps } |
Brands to serve their core purpose of supporting the living organ, a business, must be approached from an entirely holistic perspective of management. Branding, marketing and communication departments create an irreplaceable value to any organisation only under the condition of being fully aligned with other departments, their initiatives, issues, goals and strategies. Brands speak the company’s voice in such manner that it is actively listened by customers while creating a carve to engage with the company that stands behind the brand. For management teams knowing what customers think of your brand but also what your prospective clients have in mind when seeing your corporate colours or logo is critical to staying current with the voice that your brand communicates speak to your audience. Knowing what reactions, thoughts, feelings and actions your brand generates is the guidepost to getting closer to the image of your market, its preferences and intents that drive the final decision-making process |
Brands play a leading role in the performance called Identification. Here the importance of symbols, colour palette, and messaging consistency places itself on the pedestal of quality. All elements that contribute to the easiness of brand recognition amongst a crowded area of competitors allows brands simplify customers’ selection of a particular product. The priority of making it easier to digest the overwhelming amounts of offerings and promises that various brands present takes over. This function of a brand enhances the
Simplicity of recognition, familiarity and consistency |
Another responsibility that is stitched to the brands’ uniform is a momentum of exclusivity. Within the area of luxury brands such as B2C retailers or membership providers, the fact of being part of this premium club of specially curated audience { read: customers } helps to cultivate the high-end relationship between a brand and its steward { read: a customer }. This luxurious member club that allows its custodians to be part of this special social bond grands its members with a unique kind of social business card that distinguishes the members’ citizenship from other parts of society. This branding function relates to the
Quality that manifests Prestige, Luxury and Distinction |
Brands from the perspective of value that is directly related to the financial wellbeing of a business contribute to the loyalty that consumers share with a brand. Strong brands are rewarded with a special kind of allowance { read: privilege } of premium pricing and market trends dictatorship. On many occasions luxurious brands refuse to participate in any kind of sale driven marketing, discounted offings or an easiness of products’ accessibility, instead, they decide to go the route engraved by per invitation only memberships, significantly higher the market average pricing and unconventional mar-com campaigns.
Brand leadership represents an extremely valuable intangible asset of a business, it keeps sales levels constant, market share in healthy tolerance borders and is resistant to short-term price wars, promotions or special offers. It simplifies the market penetration as new market entry projects are equipped in a better probability of success, grounded in a strong brand positioning, CI consistency and recognisability across markets, channels, geographical locations and cultures |
Getting to know the real value of a brand that a company is married to brings a portfolio of benefits to the business owners, allows them to build steady levels of confidence in terms of evaluating the real brand equity. Knowing what is the value that your brand represents enhances the corporate confidence in trade relationships within a target marketplace, it impacts supplier relationships as well as simplifies positioning strategies. Brand equity evaluation is a rather challenging task, due to the nature of brands. A brand is an intangible asset of a company, it creates the reputation of the product, it develops brand associations and makes it easier for customers to select products based on the familiarity of brand visual and verbal assets. Strong brands motivate the purchasing powers of customers, it instantly differentiates the product offerings and brings a significant amount of financial value in the event of merger or acquisition |
Evaluating intangible assets such as a brand requires a great portfolio of understanding across the arenas of communication, finance, marketing, branding and commercial performance. The complexity of the task lays in the right approach however its importance is extremely valuable on many business occasions including acquisitions or selling a company |
To initialise the route of evaluating the brand equity is to assess the marketing contribution of the brand impact, the total cost invested in it as well as profit margin associated with the products supported by marketing initiatives including launch, brand activation and regular projects …
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