Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header about About Home Profiles articles Tools forums inspirational quotes About facebook Twitter YouTube Blog
Share for a Cause











Do Bean Counters Understand Brand Value?

Guest post by: Bob Grant

Article Overview: A company's brand has real value. Brand makes up 48% of Coca Cola's brand enterprise value. But outside of the Fortune 500, do CFO's and financial managers of small to medium size companies understand brand value?

Free Download - Copy or Design, Which is More Important? By Bob Grant
Name: Email:

Do Bean Counters Understand Brand Value?

Brand expert, professor Don E. Schultz in a recent article in Marketing Management magazine describes quite accurately the importance of the value of brand as an asset. He points out that the value of the brand makes up 48% of Coca-Cola’s enterprise value and 37% of that of Google. However, the point of his article is that marketing and brand managers do not understand that relationship which makes it difficult for them to get the support of financial officers to back brand and marketing initiatives. From my experience it is often the financial managers who do not understand the value of brand. They see it only as a marketing expense to be tied to the marketing budget for the year.

While I don’t doubt for a second that big brand companies like Coca-Cola, Google, IBM and Apple, senior financial management totally understand the value of brand and I imagine that they are in sync with their marketing and brand managers. However, I think in smaller and less brand visible companies, it is the marketing and brand managers who understand the financial benefits of the company brand and struggle to convince the financial managers to support brand initiatives.

Mr. Schultz does point out that short-term fiscal year accounting systems work against support for long-term brand funding. Brand development and creating a brand strategy can be a significant investment of finances and personnel, and usually takes more than a year to gain momentum. Brand needs to be viewed as an investment. This may be difficult for financial managers of small to medium size companies to grasp, and they find it difficult to justify expenditures on brand development. I would be interested in hearing from others about who has the better understanding of the company’s brand value. Is it the marketing and brand managers, or is it financial managers who understand brand value?

Related Articles
  Lesson #3: Go Ahead and Get Your Hands a Little Dirty
  Finding Success in the Great Outdoors: How Bean Lived his Dream
  Lesson #4: Network to Bring Others Into the Know
  Lesson #2: Care for Your Customers and They Will Keep Coming Back for More
  Branding The Magic Bean or Field of Dreams
  The Merchant of Maine: L.L. Bean is Born
  Lesson #5: Do Not Go Wild with Your Marketing
  Lesson #1: Plan for the Long Run If You Want to Run Long
  Dressed for Success: L.L. Bean Takes On Retail
  Merger Miseries 6 Bean Counters and Bubbleheads
  The Valuable Management Benefits Of Effective Communication
  Show Some Generosity
  Brand equity vs value
  57% of Layoffs Occur in Middle Age
  What the Gurus Said
  A New Year in the Pharmaceutical Industry
  The Power of a Brand Name and how to make your own brand powerful
  Let Me Tell You About A Truly Great Brand
  Everything You Do
  Time to buy banks with mark-to-market behind them?

Home > Branding > Bob Grant > Do Bean Counters Understand Brand Value >
Article Tags: brand, brand equity, brand value

About the Author: Bob Grant
RSS for Bob's articles - Visit Bob's website

Bob is president of Grant Marketing, a B2B brand strategy and interactive marketing communications company in the greater Boston area. Bob has extensive experience in industrial manufacturing sales and marketing, and more than 30 years of B2B marketing and advertising experience.

Click here to visit Bob's website
Dashed Line

More from Bob Grant
Copy or Design Which is More Important
A hard working brand or just another pretty face
Is There A Shift In Industrial Marketing
3 Ways for Industrial Marketers To Evaluate Their Brand
Whats Hot in B2B Marketing


Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter, Social Networking: What's Your method? Re: Twitter, Social Networking: What's Your method? - Marvelous GT, thanks I see the day coming when the volume of tweets and likes that I see will be labeled spam and have been trying to gather my thoughts on Tweet and Facebook spam! Understand the Facebook has joined with WOT (mywot -website of trust) to raise a response when a link is posted> I have my own issues with WOT and have taken it off my machines Anyone have some thoughts to share ?
Re: Partner with Sony Pictures.Coca-Cola and Toyota Re: Partner with Sony Pictures.Coca-Cola and Toyota - I've truly always been amazed by small businesses who have big name company's listed on their websites with whom they have done work for or partnered in the Past. Has anyone on the Forum has such a partnership with large organizations or Brand name companies? Would you mind sharing how you were able to set up the partnership without giving away names of people you work with?
Re: Success Re: Success - I study success intently, and would like to share: Here's two excellent and nearly identical success-formulas from a couple of the world's masters. FIRST FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Clear, Definite Purpose 3. Committed Decision 4. Take Action In Faith (Bonus Secret Sauce: 5. Repeat Consistently) I made a video about this, but am not allowed to link it yet. Google "Ryze Success Steps" for it. Oh, and this is Napoleon Hill's (Master Of Success Laws)'s Formula. SECOND FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Understand It Is Already Done (Faith) 3. Relax & Allow It To Unfold (Go about your life calmly) This one is courtesy of Abraham-Hicks (inspiration for the movie The Secret). Hope that helps!
Risky business? Risky business? - I follow the rule that you should never do business with friends or family (aside from business, I never borrow from them on a personal level either). It's nice that your friend offered without being asked, and i'm sure he thinks your idea is a really good one or he wouldn't have made that type of offer (to risk money) just out of friendship. I'm sure if he didn't think it woould fly, he wouldnt have made the offer. It's a matter of personal preference whether you want to have a friend (or family memember) be your Angel investor. You both need to understand the risks involved and discuss the "what if's" beforehand....What if it doesn't work out? Does he lose his initial investment? Should you try to pay him back if the business fails, when he offered to take the risk and you didn't ask? These are things that should be discussed and even though you are friends, you should have a lawyer draw up an investment or partnership agreement. Understand it's a business venture and the friendship should have nothing to do with it.
Brand Babble Brand Babble - I recently read another great book called "Brand Babble" The book debunks a bunch of branding 'myths' that have seem to get passed around as conventional branding wisdom. The authors are Don E Schultz & Heidi F Schultz. ISBN 0-538-72714-4


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.



Featured Article

Bottom Footer



Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

Marketing & Sales tools – going back to basics

3 Key Factors For Raising Capital

Working Across Borders

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.