The Trouble With Brands

I have an article in this month’s STRATEGY & BUSINESS entitled ‘The Trouble With Brands’.  I sat down with Editor Art Kleiner from Booz & Co to discuss brands, brand valuation and the overall challenges with guiding brands in today’s volatile environment.

While this article delves on my thesis work in my book, The Brand Bubble, we also explore the impact of branding in today’s recessionary climate. In our analysis we found that brand value now makes up almost one-third of the market capitalization of The S&P 500 companies. Therefore, the CEO must understand their brands are an increasingly large source of the promises they are making of future earnings to shareholders. It follows then that marketing should not be thought of as a cost, but rather a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.

The 21st Century CEO is the ‘brand manager in chief’, by focusing on brand building by bringing the consumer into the center of their organization and creating an environment where everyone is thinking about marketing, not just the marketing department. The world’s most innovative and increasingly valuable companies are doing just that. And they’re positioning themselves well for the upturn as a result.

Tagged as: Brand, Brand management, ceo, chief brand officer, Market capitalization, Positioning