Envisia
Adriana Lobda
Founding Member
How should a finance professional view branding?
When you look at a company, you don’t just look at the numbers, you don’t just look at the numbers or at how much it earns and how much it spends; you look at the environment in which it operates, you look at the market, the people, the risks, the opportunities. All of these are captured in the work of a Big Four consultant. When you think about branding, from this perspective, it doesn’t just mean spending money and then expecting an immediate return, expecting all the clients to come knocking at your door. It’s a long-term investment that you can quantify or evaluate over time. Although many say these investments don’t show up on the financial side, you’re building an image, you’re building that intangible asset which now, alongside the company’s knowledge, talent, franchises and so on, becomes increasingly important. A potential investor, playing in the landscape of many acquisitions, can quantify it. Essentially, it represents the difference between how much they allocate to you, how they evaluate your business and what you have in your financial situations. So, it’s a distinct element, increasingly visible, and now, if we look at the big companies, which we aspire to become, obviously, their value is practically divided about 40% brand and only 60% assets or in the case of some IT companies, even more.
So, from my point of view this brand is becoming increasingly important and is being highly recognized lately by those looking at the acquisition market.
How is a brand evaluated?
It’s the difference between the value assigned to it by the market, for example, if you’re a company listed on a regulated market, it’s the market capitalization value, minus the value of tangible net assets from your financial statements. It’s an evidence, a truth given by the market; of course, there are also brand evaluation methodologies made by successful specialists based on classic future cash flow analysis.
How was the first experience with INOVEO?
I remember having discussions about this project. It was clearly time to begin it. I’ve been through similar rebranding processes in the organizations I’ve worked for, but this time I felt it completely differently. I felt it as a part of my personality and what I am going to do, and I realized it would be the next necessary step in our development. It helped us to sit together at the table, to think, to rethink, to have emotions, to align our dreams and to develop a new strategy.
How did you view the branding process?
I saw it as a very serious and necessary project. I wondered how will we measure this return. It’s not easy, even though marketing people talk about it, return on investment in the rebranding process. We are still in the process of measuring it. I thought we wouldn’t have a lot of information, we wouldn’t have a very clear structure, but I understood that it shouldn’t be an immediate return or we shouldn’t expect an immediate return. And if it’s about long-term “investments”, then I said yes, along with my partner we must go through such a process because it helps us.
