The Three Intangible Groups and Brand Value
Today there is a consensus among Value and Valuation experts
from all over the world, especially among Americans and Europeans,
that intangible assets can be grouped into three groups:
1. Intellectual Capital;
2. Intellectual Property;
3. Brand Portfolio Heritage.
In the first group, Intellectual Capital, are
all things connected to the human factor that create value for
stakeholders and society, like management skills, sales skills,
relationships with suppliers, trade and final customers, the
ability to attract talent, participation programs; in short: teams,
internal culture, abilities in innovation, competition and
obtaining good results.
In the second group, Intellectual Property, are
the patents, software, copyrights, royalties, domains, licenses,
franchise agreements, operational agreements, consulting and
supporting skills that save time; in other words, every asset or
immaterial ability to create income and value.
In the third group, Brand Portfolio Heritage,
are the brands that have been properly evaluated through some kind
of projective method for direct or indirect revenue. Unfortunately
many companies still don't have enough knowledge and skills to
evaluate their own brand value, and they also lack formal processes
to build a truly competitive brand portfolio.
Within companies this responsibility is in a sort of limbo
between marketing directors (if they exist) and the financial
areas. For this reason most companies deal with this subject as if
it is a departmental matter; be it legal, finance or marketing.
Therefore many companies consider that the creation of a brand
is simply inventing a creative name for a product or company,
drawing a logo and having them registered. The largest companies in
the world used this type of creation model back in the 1900s when
the first system for products and brands was created empirically.
Since then over 100 years have gone by and it has largely evolved
up to today.
Currently it lays on the third group of the intangible assets
and it is part of a systematic knowledge hence it involves legal,
accounting, finance and marketing departments. Only when a
consistent systemic vision is combined with methods of
international standard and the direct involvement of the CEO, the
head of all departments, brands are allowed to be elements in the
actual creation of value for stakeholders and society.