Kit is mentioning about Brandient's pilot project of putting some number behind the brand name of Capital (a Romania weekly magazine). As I could only find a story in Romanian and as I enjoyed doing similar valuations stuff back in my corporate finance years here is in short what variables their model - Brand Stamina - relies on.
1. the force of the brand (encompassing sub-variables such as loyalty, brand associations, favorability)
2. brand mechanics (brand identity book, aspect, name - mainly image-related attributes)
3. brand support (price, distribution, promotion, management - sounds mor elike the 4Ps)
4. market position (price, share, trends positioning)
5. trademarks
It should be noted that the Brand Stamina valuation was done in addition to the classic financial valuation (involving most likely discounting future revenues/income/free cash flow to the firm). So what is this worth for? When pricing a company it clearly indicates the value of an intangible part of it which sometimes it may be worth more than the total asset value of the company. And this, as Kit is saying, permits quantifying the results of the marketing budgets. And there is a saying within the business community: if you can do the math then it (the business) is controllable and easier to make it happen.
And btw, to my knowledge in the Romanian market Brandient is the first to do it and publicly acknowledging. Congrats guys, I look forward for the white paper. :)
Dragos, thanks for acknowledging our endeavor. We have put about two years of work and a strong team (including a network of partner companies) behind this project. Brand Stamina is actually only a part (what others call brand strength or similar) of the whole Brandient valuation model, which employs widely accepted financial & valuation techniques (like DCF and real options) compounded by market and consumer research and analysis. We promote brand valuation more as a visionary (read long-term) brand & business management tool, as opposed to the more shortsighted how-much-is-that-doggy-in-the-window approach. According to Interbrand (brand valuation pioneer and global leader) nowadays more than 50% of brand valuation exercises are directed to value in use (not to market value), which shows a growing business wisdom. Let's hope Romanian entrepreneurs and business owners will buy early into it. Mihai Bogdan, Partner & Director Brand Valuation, Brandient
To be honest with you I still believe that Romanians are not really prepared for this. I think you are early in the market, pioneers if you would like, as nowadays, with a few exceptions, the business culture is still not ready to think/strategize medium to long term (at least in a 3-5 years span). They should but they don't for various reasons. IMO the most important is the lack of education or understanding of the benefits. Things have started to change a bit and probably the pace will increase in the coming period - and I believe that Brandient seminars and white papers should/could play a tremendous role in the market making process. my 2 cents of course. :)
I agree with Dragos that Romania is not yet ready for this. Being somehow involved in the sector, I can tell you that Romanians are not even into contracting market value work, why would they pay for the value of the brand name? Besides few Romanian businesses invest in the brand itself and I can think of few Romanian brands that are worth to be valued. Two more cents. :)