The idea of a brand is deeply rooted in the psyche of managers as being associated with the delivery of tangible products to consumers but today we are increasingly delivering intangible services rather than goods so is branding still relevant. Traditionally a business has been viewed by senior management as split into discrete divisions, sales and marketing, production, HR, IT, legal and accounting. Some divisions created revenue and b the brand identity was important for customer recognition and action needed to be taken to maximize that while other divisions created cost that reduced the brand value and this needed to be cut. Following this methodology would logically result in increased profits.
This led in practice to highly dysfunctional decision making with, for example, IT staff being cut only for decreased effectiveness across the business producing reducing sales generation and increasing costs in other parts of the business.
Decreased profitability was the result of making otherwise perfectly logical business decisions based on KPI metrics.
The Balanced Business Scorecard seeks to address this dysfunctional approach to business management and looks at how the entire business operates as a cohesive, holistic whole. Viewing all divisions of the business as creating value allows for logical rational business decisions that do lead to increased shareholder value and enhanced profitability.
Is measuring traditional brand metrics still relevant?
The blunt answer is yes, the company brand is perhaps more important than it ever has been but how the brand is being used has probably altered greatly as is how the value of a brand is perceived not just by customers but also by shareholders.
For many listed companies the value ascribed to the company brand accounts for more than a third of the company share value. In many instances, brand value accounts for far more than that. The issue is how do we measure brand value and what metrics are available for us to use as part of a Brand KPI tool.
Using financial metrics for brand performance measurement you will find the following as the primary metrics to monitor and analyze:
– Sales Generation – measures brand as a factor in the purchasing decision
– ROI – measures the ROI using the accounting goodwill value and treating it as any other balance sheet asset
– Transaction Value – looks at the contribution from product lines and product mix and the impact of the brand on that contribution
– Growth Sustainability -this is a measure of how much the brand is contributing to sales rate growth without the business introducing further investment to gain that market share.
Financial value is probably the simplest metric to determine as we can extrapolate “goodwill” valuations using accounting and financial data coupled with share price information. At least with share pricing information we have a set finite value that the market is placing on our business and the financial accounting information can give us a basis for determining how much of the price the market will pay for a share is determined by the valuation of the goodwill.
Measuring brand perception and performance is trickier as we dealing with nebulous concepts that we know have an impact but cannot directly measure. Performing customer awareness surveys will help in providing a measure of how well known the brand is with consumers in a given section of the population or target market segment. All of these can be measured but the metrics that are produced are based upon subjective questioning and even more subjective answers.