Brand and relationship intangibles: these include trade names, trademarks and trade symbols, domain names, design rights, trade dress, packaging, copyrights over associated colours, smells, sounds, descriptors, logotypes, advertising visuals, and written copy. In addition, associated goodwill (the general predisposition of individuals to do business with one brand rather than another brand) should be included.

Then the article si focusing on several approaces to brand valuation:

There are two critical questions to answer in brand valuation. The first is exactly what is being valued. Are we valuing the trademarks, the brand or the branded business? The second important question is the purpose of the valuation. An important distinction can be made between technical and commercial valuations.

Technical valuations are generally conducted for balance sheet reporting, tax planning, litigation, securitisation, licensing, mergers and acquisitions and investor relations purposes. They focus on giving a point in time valuation that represents the value of the trademarks or of the brand as defined above.

Commercial valuations are used for the purposes of brand architecture, portfolio management, market strategy, budget allocation and brand scorecards. Such valuations are based on a dynamic model of the branded business and aim to measure the role played by the brand in influencing the key variables in the model.

Read full article here.

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Real differentiation is possible, however, for companies willing to invest creatively in ongoing programs to build and promote a compelling story. Specifically, there are five investment areas that separate today’s brand leaders from the rest of the pack:

Build a 360-degree view of existing perceptions

You can’t improve your position if you don’t really know where you stand now. Maintaining an ongoing pulse on how customers, prospects, employees, partners, investors, and industry influencers perceive your organization, your competitors, and the market as a whole is an essential foundation for strengthening the brand. Understanding in particular the attributes that customers care about most deeply is a powerful guide to the sources of potential differentiation.

Manage the customer experience

Ensuring the serviec delivery of real business value is the greatest contribution that marketing can make to build the brand-with each customer and, as important, with each additional prospect and influencer your customers touch.

Get your story straight internally

Employees are the essential carriers of the brand, and the increasing transparency of all company operations means that the folks outside the marketing department can have as much or more influence on the brand than marketers themselves. Internal education about the brand vision, promise, and proof points is obviously a critical component of building a consistent companywide brand, but this priority is far better known than done.

Influence the Influencers

Broadcasting the brand has less and less impact in a world of information overload. Buyers and others just say no. But every prospective buyer looks to friends, colleagues, industry analysts, media, and other “influencers” to seek new ideas, evaluate alternatives, and support decisions. The new twist on this old story is that the influence environment has changed dramatically in recent years. Online communities, bloggers, peer networks, and other grassroots information sources have exploded and more are emerging all the time. Marketers need to look systematically at the most important influencers in this new environment and build more systematic programs to engage and persuade them of their company’s unique position.

Narrowcast

Developing focused programs to enhance competitive position directly with key clients and prospects is the next wave for brand management. Pioneers in account-based positioning point to three reasons why this matters: declining loyalty among top accounts, diverse perceptions within those accounts, and the increasing strategic importance of those accounts for growth, references, and collaboration on new solutions.

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External investor relations
Mergers and acquisitions were the original driving force for brand valuation. Now many successful companies use brand valuation as an ongoing business performance indicator: to help ensure that brand strength is reflected in share value.

Internal marketing management
Brand valuation is increasingly being used as a management tool in leading organizations. For example: brand valuation figures can be used to evaluate new product and market development opportunities, to set business objectives or allocate budgets.

Internal royalty rates
Across a large organization there may be many affiliates, subsidiaries or divisions that make use of any particular brand. As the profit potential of brands becomes more clearly understood more companies are charging royalties, across their business operations, for the use of these brand assets.

Licensing and franchising
Where companies allow outside organizations to use their brand, on a licensing or franchising basis, a brand valuation can lay the foundation for appropriate charges.

Tax planning
As the management of brands as financial assets becomes more sophisticated, so tax authorities around the world have started to take an interest in how these assets are managed. The result is that more and more international organizations are planning the most cost-effective domicile for their brand portfolios and are organizing their tax affairs with their brands in mind.

Securitized borrowing
Even in the conservative world of banking, the asset value of brands has been recognized. As a result brands have been used to secure loans, especially in the US, where companies such as Disney have borrowed significant amounts of money against their brand name.

Litigation support
Brand valuations have been used to support litigation against the illegal use of a brand name (as a basis for calculating damages, for example) and also in cases of receivership, to prevent the assets of the business being undervalued.

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