Modern Brand ManagementFundamentals and latest thinking

Many years ago when I first became a Brand Manager I received a job description which clearly outlined my responsibilities towards this peculiar thing called ‘a brand’. It concluded by saying that I had an ‘overall responsibility for the entrusted brand’. To clarify what this really meant I asked a... read moremore senior colleague for his view. He was definitive. The brand was there before I received it and it had better still be there when I had finished with it!

Some thirty years on brand management is even more important.

More than half the stock market values of companies in the western world consist of undisclosed or intangible assets. Such intangible assets may be intellectual property, even people, but are chiefly the brands owned by the companies concerned. The accounting professionals struggle to account for these values, hampered as they are with the principles of historic cost accounting. Shareholders have no such problem. They know that brands, given their direct franchise with the consumer, behave more predictably, sustain better prices and are inherently less risky than commodities. Getting all aspects of brand management correct has never been more important to shareholders. Most of their wealth is tied up in them. However, the environment in which brands are managed has never been more challenging or competitive.

Brand owners serve a wide range of interest groups whose opinion may affect the value of the brand. Companies are expected to be even more transparent in their policies and dealings. They have to deal within a complex ethical and legal framework. They still have to create an appropriate return for their shareholders.

This series examines the realities of modern brand management.