Other than bankruptcy, what’s the most terrifying thing to a Chief Financial Officer? If you guessed the company’s brand, you’d be right! Any accounting person will tell you “numbers don’t lie.” Similar to the old adage, if a tree falls in a forest...when a physical number can’t be tied to an asset, is it really an asset at all? The answer is YES!!! Some of a company’s most powerful and valuable assets don’t show up on the company balance sheet. Things like brand, intellectual property, licenses, in-house technologies, and employee training are all major assets that you will never see as part of a company’s bottom line. Perhaps the most important one of all is brand. Read below to learn the 4 things your boss expects you to know about brand. Once you understand why brand is so critical, you’ll see it’s not so scary after all.
1) Brand Is Like Glue
A company’s brand is the cornerstone; it’s what holds everything together. It isn’t just your company name on your product. It’s the emotions that name elicits in consumers. It’s the reason they buy (or don’t buy) a particular product or service. If you brand distinctively, your company can be incredibly successful. Investing in your brand can yield returns like product line leadership, improved product review scores, and growth in new markets.
2) Brand Perception is Everything
Brand perception is what customers believe a product or service represents, not what the company owning the brand says it does. People form perceptions around a product they might not even own and in some cases, have never even tried! This is why brand investment is so important. A company needs to control their own narrative and make sure what they put in the market, not only does what they say it will, but that their consumers have positive experiences any time they “touch” the brand. That includes: products, on-product branding, advertising, social media, and services to name a few.
3) Brand is the Ultimate Storyteller
You can use your brand to make truly meaningful connections with your target audiences. Do you want to be known as a company who consistently releases products that are reliable and will stand the test of time? Then your brand and all that it encompasses, needs to look and feel a certain way to evoke trust from the end consumer. Your on-product branding should be robust, made of quality material, and be prominently displayed. Your advertising should show your product in action, withstanding the tough environments without issue. Anyone can tell a great story, but only great brands have stories that are remembered.
4) Brand is the Best Competitive Advantage
Products and technologies are often copied by competitors. Sure, the design might be altered slightly and likely work a little bit differently, but it’s not uncommon for very similar products to be displayed right next to each other. So, what makes one better than the other? BRAND! It all comes down to brand and what the name means to the consumer weighing their options. If you have a brand that is well-established and known for superior quality and you look like what you say you are, you’ll likely win every time. Brand building is extremely important to your future business growth. Investing in your brand will yield returns. Put simply, you can’t have one without the other.
Investment in your brand is critical for long-term success. It’s just as important as investing in R&D and facility expansion and all the other “tangible” assets that most companies consider necessary for growth. Remember, just because a number can’t be tied to brand value, doesn't mean it isn’t incredibly powerful to your bottom line.
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