Is there a brand bubble?

 

If you read No Logo there is a pin pointed moment that I can't recall when the value of building brands was formalised based on a case where the intangible value of the brand was successfully assessed and paid for in the sale of a major company - or something like that.  I think it was David Ogilvy that said that if advertising could add 1% to share value then that would more than out strip any incremental sales target.   If you think through the rationale it means that you can agree a set of benchmarks for things that you can measure that advertising can effect and come up with a formula to measure how much the brand itself is worth separate to more tangible things like assets, contracts etc...  Do some advertising to raise the scores and then you can raise the value of your company.  Some of the broader principles are sound but what if some of the assumptions it makes are not right.  What if suddenly you went out of fashion, or something in culture swung against you, or people just weren't as loyal as you thought they were going to be.  There is a new book out which I've read bits of that say that there is a huge brand bubble that could burst at any given time based on the argument that 'companies think their brands are worth more than consumers do.'  When you say it like this it sounds like it could be true. What is the answer to this problem assuming that there is one.  To my mind this says that you need to find more tangible ways to build brand value over and above a static set of communicated values.  A more tangible version might be to think more in terms of a mission or goal that leads every part of a business from the service that it provides to customers to the style of innovation that will create future profits.  In this more industrious action orientated definition the overall behaviour of the business as a whole the brand remit.  Sustainability offers the framework to do this as it helps you to define what good behaviour and bad behaviour looks like and adds substance to your mission.  Get this right and you will have established a more solid role for your brand to avoid the risks inherent in any brand bubble if it were to burst.  Tomorrows tastes and business environment are looking increasingly like a sharp edge that could catch out the laggards.