Relationship Capital: Brands versus Reputation

The final category of relationship capital (after customers and partners) is brand and reputation capital.

Brand is how your customers see your products. Reputation is about how all your stakeholders view your entire operation. Each is important. Brand communication is generally thought to leave more room for definition by the holder. That is, I can influence how you see my brand through my marketing and management of the customer experience. But both brand and reputation are as much about your stakeholders’ knowledge of you as it is your knowledge of them. This shared knowledge is what make brand and reputation part of relationship capital. Read more

Finessing Brand Finance

David Ruder, a fellow member of the Intangible Asset Finance Society (IAFS),  gave us a great overview of the brand finance market on our monthly call. David is with RPX and has a lot of experience in the intangible asset finance markets.

Here are some highlights on brands:

• US licensee revenues are $75 billion per year.
• Licensor revenenues are $5.8 billion
• He told the story of Mossimo, a troubled company that sold an exclusive license to their brand to Target. It has become a $1 billion brand.
• Licensing streams can be very steady–which makes them good for financing

His slides are here but I highly recommend the recording of the teleconference because he talked for an additional half hour after finishing with the slides.