Strong brands make businesses blossom

April is the beginning of the financial year for many businesses. The time when new budgets spring into action. Chief Marketing Officers and their teams will have negotiated allocations for tactical and longer-term activities. And many will be asking themselves the same nagging question - “Are we spending enough on our brand”?

Please sir, can I have some more?
Savvy executives understand that brands have a crucial role to play in the success of their business. Indeed, for many their brand is their most valuable asset. According to The Economist up to 30% of the value of stock market is accounted for by brand strength, as a key element of goodwill and intangible value.

But calculating the precise value of a brand is notoriously difficult. And this presents a real problem for Marketing leaders who need to justify their expenditure. Because while the direct effect of other investments can be measured accurately, ‘brand’ is slippery because it is so multi-dimensional. Brand is the outcome of each touch point and all aspects of customer (and colleague) experience.

And it doesn’t help that rival consultancies produce league tables every year which present wildly different ‘values’ for brands.

Invest in your pipeline
Rather than kidnapping their CFO and inducting her/him into the darkest arts of brand analytics to secure an appropriate budget for brand marketing, CMOs should make a very simple argument, using language that executives (and investors) can easily relate to. Simply put, your brand builds the value of your business by generating sustainable cash flows. Your brand is your pipeline, and a strong brand boosts market share and supports premium pricing.

Evidence from Forbes, Kantar, System1, the IPA and others proves the strong correlation between a positive reputation, share of mind and long-term financial success.

Now is the time
Strong brands outperform the market. And the extent of their outperformance increases significantly during times of economic uncertainty driven by wars, tariffs and political instability.

Times like now. So now is the time to allocate appropriate resources to your long-term brand building. Brands make businesses worth more. And the same is true for good Marketing leaders.

Written by Simon Case

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