Value of brand

THE BUZZ ON BRAND VALUE!


Crack a beer! Let’s get a brand buzz on! Brands that start clean and finish smooth. Full-bodied brands with rich, complex flavours. Intense brands, spicy yet balanced. Zesty brands, frothily refreshing. Brands that evoke lazy summer days in the country and hot, sultry nights in the city. Brand-a-licious!

Beer is the perfect example of how branding adds magical value to products and services. All those beers lining the shelves are screaming for attention. Brand equity is what sets beer breeds apart in the hearts, minds and gullets of drinkers. Without brand equity, most beers would amount to nothing more than fancy bottles filled with strong water, totally worthless me-too commodities. (Well, not totally worthless. Hic!) 

Think taste drives beer leading brand value? In taste tests across the lands, beer drinkers most always cite taste as the number one reason for brand loyalty. Yet, when beers sans logos are lined up before them, most self-professed beer connoisseurs are unable to identify their beloved brands from the lot and instead usually rave about the tainted competition. Brand equity and brand messaging is the secret ingredient that entices beer drinkers to belly up to bar and keeps them returning round after round. And the same goes for products of all persuasions.

Even if après-work cocktails are the closest you come to mixing business with liquor, beer branding precepts apply to your company.  You have competition, right? (Don’t lie!) And many of those wannabe knock-offs dare to proudly offer products and services that “taste” similar, maybe even the same, as yours. (Egad! They stole your secret formula!) With everyone insisting “we’re the best” how are customers and prospects to tell the difference? What tempts them in the first place and keeps them coming back for more rounds? Finely crafted brand equity!

Brand equity is the sum total of the many different values that customers associate with a brand. These values are both real and perceived, but comprise a corporate asset that holds rock solid value. Brand equity is measured in the additional income expected from branded products versus unbranded products with identical features.

This perceived value explains why people are willing to pay more for name brand products, even when generic counterparts offer the same quality and features — like when a pair of Nike runners commands well over $100, or Duracell batteries being sold at a price 30% higher than its generic counterparts.

Asked about the importance of brand to their companies, senior managers will say that, aside from their people, brand is without a doubt their most valuable corporate asset. How valuable is brand? In the 2008 BrandZ Top 100 rankings published by research agency Millward Brown Optimor, Coke’s brand is valued at $58.2 billion, a amount based on intangible earnings that are attributable to brand alone, as opposed to other factors such as price and the value of their hard assets such as factories, products, delivery trucks, etc.

Branding adds value by enabling a product or service to command a higher price or market share than an unbranded equivalent. In a crowded market where parity products compete, branding can hugely affect the price that customers are willing to pay. And that premium can compensate many times over for the extra cost of promotions and advertising required to spread the brand gospel message.

Branding is not just for huge companies with multi-million dollar budgets. Some of the world’s greatest brands such as Nike and Starbucks were launched on shoestring budgets by visionaries who dared to seize their destinies, naysayers be damned. Now they run legendary companies with astronomical brand equity and share values.

Building brand value and delivering it consistently helps a company to grow and prosper. A strong brand not only drives an increase in sales, it uniquely positions a company in the hearts and minds of all stakeholders -- attracting and retaining the best employees, forging stronger relationships with vendors and partners, and increasing share value for investors.

Your company may enjoy a high level of market awareness, but if your brand messaging is fuzzy, untargeted, or poorly communicated, you’re not leveraging your brand equity potential.

Even if your company is mature and has always operated without a brand plan in place, it’s not too late to start rebuilding for the future by investing your business with crisp, clean brand energy to create brand buzz around your products and services. Now that’s refreshing!

Click here to learn more about the visual identity of brand.


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