Clearview PR: When owners plan to sell or merge, Investing in market visibility multiplies their profit

"If this business were split up, I would give you the land and bricks and mortar, and I would take the brands and trademarks, and I would fare better than you."
--John Stewart, Chairman of Quaker, 1900

TAMPA, Fla., April 24, 2018 -- Business owners considering sale or merger should be taking steps to become a brand rather than generic in order to improve company value to increase profit at closing, according to Andrew Bowen, APR, founder and senior counsel at Clearview Communications and Public Relations Inc.

One established method of doing both, Bowen recommends, is to plan and launch a well-crafted marketing campaign that drives positive visibility to multiply brand value. “An investment in a year-long marketing/public relations campaign to raise brand visibility for your company can result in significant multiples of that amount in eventual profit at sale,” says Bowen, a marketing/public relations executive for more than 25 years.

Here is some research from Clearview that supports taking that action, sooner rather than later:

• Brand value can be used to negotiate a price when licensing the brand, transferring the brand to another firm, or valuing a firm for mergers and acquisitions (Justin Anderson, Cal State)
• A study by Interbrand and JP Morgan concluded that on average, brands, that is, positive market visibility, account for 30% of shareholder value. The converse? No brand recognition may deprive you and your firm of 30% of its market value.
• For major brands, the shareholder value of the highly visible brand is much higher. For Coca-Cola, the brand name alone is estimated at 60% of market cap. For Microsoft, 65%; IBM, 51%; GE, 41%; Disney, 29%; Mercedes-Benz, 21%. McDonalds? An astonishing 71%. Visibility is indeed valuable, while invisibility is worthless.
• In general, name brands command 30% more margin than generics (common, standard, non-specific). Which one are you? Brand or generic?
• There is a global trend in corporate accounting to treat the brand value as an asset on the balance sheet that in some cases has more genuine shareholder value than factories and employees.
• Brand value can be calculated as the net present value of future price premiums that a branded product will command over an unbranded or generic equivalent.
• People will pay more for a branded product than a generic one, and more for a favored brand than the alternatives. (Brand research firm Millward Brown)
• Brand equity has been defined as the financial value that a firm derives from customer response to the marketing of a brand.
  
• Investors will and should pay more for a firm that owns brands with favorable brand imagery associations and strong loyalty than a similar firm with less appealing brands (Madden et all 2006).
• The firm that owns the brand derives economic rent, which is earned revenue to the firm; the firm benefits from the favorable associations created by the firm's marketing policies for the brand.
• Brand image resides in the consumers' minds, but brand equity is a dollar value to the firm. It is the profit that a firm makes from owning the brand.

Contact info: Andrew Bowen, 404-822-3309, [email protected]