27 April 2011 - 9:16Do Bean Counters Count Brand Value?

By Bob Grant

Integrated marketing expert, Professor Don E. Schultz, in a recent article in Marketing Management magazine describes quite accurately the importance of the value of brand as an asset.  He points out that the value of the brand makes up 48% of Coca-Cola’s enterprise value and 37% of that of Google. However, the point of his article is that marketing and brand managers do not understand that relationship which makes it difficult for them to get the support of financial officers to back brand and marketing initiatives. From my experience it is just the opposite.

While I don’t doubt for a second that big brand companies like Coca-Cola, Google, IBM and Apple  senior financial management totally understand the value of brand and I imagine that they are in sync with their marketing and brand managers. However, in smaller and less brand visible companies, it is my experience that the marketing and brand managers understand the financial benefits of the company brand and struggle to convince the financial managers to support brand initiatives.

Mr. Schultz does point out that short-term fiscal year accounting systems work against support for long-term brand funding. This may be why financial managers of small to medium size companies find it difficult to justify expenditures on brand development.

I would be interested in hearing from others about who has the better understanding of the company’s brand value.  Is it the marketing and brand managers, or is it financial managers?