Branding Agency | Brand Agency

In a blind taste test, where blindfolded consumers were given sips of Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Home brand colas and asked to choose their preference, the results were evenly split between the three choices¹.

However, when asked about their favourite beverage, over half the respondents chose Coca-Cola, even though it may not have been their choice in the test. Indeed, many respondents who chose the home brand cola as their favourite still indicated that they would purchase Coca-Cola over the cheaper brand in the future. The difference between home brand cola and Coca-Cola in the consumers mind?

Brand Value

Brand value is the holy grail that branding agencies all strive to create for their clients. According to business dictionaries, it is “the premium that accrues to a brand from customers who are willing to pay extra for it.” But what does this mean?

Brand value, branding agencies and consumers

Think of the word Apple in a corporate context. What do you visualise?

Sleek, sophisticated computing equipment
Ingenuity
Steve Jobs
Easy to use, powerful equipment

If so, these are all factors that add to the brand’s value. It gives the brand credibility, and the ability to charge higher prices than brands that have not built the same amount of brand capital. Every brand agency needs to understand brand value in order to effectively position its client’s brands in a way that resonates with the target customer base.

Donald Trump's brand value

In his latest book, Donald Trump assesses his brand value to be worth $3 billion ². This figure, arrived at by a leading branding agency, is quite different to Forbes magazine's analysis which sits his brand value at around $200 million. This obviously is a huge discrepancy – how can two well respected brand agency titans get such a different figure? The main reason is the intangibility and subjectivity of brand value.

Intangibility of brand value

It can be difficult for a branding agency to put a solid, tangible figure on brand value without a huge amount of research and tests with consumers. Some ways a brand agency can determine brand value is:

Relative Price: Determining price elasticity of customers when purchasing the brand, and comparing that to competitors.
Esteem and Relevance: The attraction and usefulness of the brand to its target market.
Perceived quality: Determining the perceived quality of the brand compared to its direct competition.

How do I start to build my brand value?

Brand value is created through close analysis of the target market and creation of a synergistic brand identity. For more information, contact Charles Elena Design on (03) 9663 5433.