What Do Credit Unions Brand For?
by Amanda McMeans
In recent years, “brand” has become somewhat of a buzzword in business. While a lot of people think it is an intangible and amorphous word with little meaning, your company’s brand is the single most important contributor to your bottom line as an organization. Successful brands are invaluable. Conversely, undefined brands are a black hole on your organization’s balance sheet.
Brands have real, actual value behind them, which is known as “brand value” or “brand equity.” Investopedia defines brand value as “the value premium that a company realizes from a product with a recognizable name as compared to its generic equivalent. Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable and superior in quality and reliability. Mass marketing campaigns can also help to create brand equity.”
Let’s use Coca Cola as an example. It is the most recognizable brand in the world with its brand valued at $77.8 billion, according to the 2012 Best GlobalBrands Report by Interbrand. This $77.8 billion is the cost of the actual brand…not inventory or real estate or its executives. It is the value of Coca Cola’s brand recognition throughout the world. Coke’s consumers pay more for the Coca Cola brand product over competitors and generic labels, and that difference of what consumers will spend is Coca Cola’s brand equity.
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