Brand is an Intangible Asset
Friday, August 27th, 2010
If there’s one misconception I’d absolutely love to beat out of the World Wide Web it’s the one about logo and brand. Why? Because they’re different… logo is a tangible asset that can be stolen, replicated or followed by your competitors. Brand is intangible… difficult to replicate… impossible to steal.
Understand Brand
Let’s think about working as a freelance web designer or coder or photographer. All of the characteristics of your product or service create a perception in the mind of customers and industry players. Brand lives not in your company… brand lives in the minds of the people in your market.
One thing freelancers and small businesses (don’t get me started on artists) need to realise is that everything they do affects their brand. If they leave home in grubby track pants with smelly runners versus leaving home looking like a million dollars – it affects perception in their market. The same goes for calling out a dick in a forum or giving a helpful hand to a newbie. It affects their brand.
When you think of the brand NIKE what enters your head? Or Coke? Or Qantas? It’s not the product or the logo exactly… it’s a fuzzy feeling of what people perceive to be NIKE, Coke and Qantas. When you think about Australia Post the important criteria is your perception and not the actual nature of the company.
Understand Brand Equity
But blah-de-blah about the brand stuff. Where the rubber meets the road is in the traction your brand has (positive or negative) in the market. This is brand equity.
The easiest way of thinking about brand equity is to consider what that brand means in real terms in your market’s mind. How useful is it (in a positive or negative sense)? You could say brand equity is the inherent value of the brand that can be built up and lost over time. So it’s not enough to have a brand… you need brand equity, which is the value associated with the brand to your business or its customers.
Why is Brand and Brand Equity Important?
Your logo can be copied. Your business processes can be replicated. Your uniforms, designs, office location, finance… anything physical at all… can be reproduced by your competitors and there is really nothing you can do about it except scream to the feeble courts for IP violation or cry about your misfortune. This brave new world of business is about easy replication on a global scale and access to resources – learn to live with it.
