How much is your brand worth?
Have you ever thought how much your brand is actually worth? Just because it is not listed on your balance sheet along with your building, stock, cash and fixtures and fittings doesn’t mean that it isn’t one of your organisations most valuable assets. But how can you get your brand to deliver even greater value?
First of all you cannot not communicate. If you have been trading for any length of time your business means something to somebody be they clients, customers or service users – in other words you have a brand. You either ignore your brand and let your audiences reach their own perceptions, outside of your control, or you manage your brand and all its elements to improve perceptions, build your business and improve your bottom line.
Businesses are sometimes reactive and operationally focused. Those at the top often think they don’t have time to build their brands because they are too busy meeting the needs of their customers and growing their business. We believe this is the essence of building a brand.
Your brand is much more than your logo. It’s the way you do business. It’s the tangible and intangible assets that your audience attributes to your business. It’s the factors that make your service offer, product lines, culture, language and appearance more desirable than your competition.
Even if you have given time and effort to developing your brand, continuity is required as over time incremental changes to collateral can lead to your brand expression becoming fragmented. The most successful brands also evolve. They must be thought of less as a set of fixed rules and more as a platform from which an organisation can communicate.
Can you afford to invest in your brand? The question should be – can you afford not to?