... Now this was fascinating and quite entertaining to watch.
Being a religious Marketing Week subscriber, I've come across Mark Ritson's contrarian, but logically sound opinions before. While Mark make a valid points with the three sins addressed in his initial argument, Michael Rocha from Interbrand, Doreen Wang from BrandZ, and David Haigh from Brand Finance make solid rebuttals. A few things I took away from this were that:
- Valuations are subjective and can differ just like other parts of the industry, e.g. equity firms.
- As long as you can explain your valuation methodology, variations between different valuation assessments are understandable.
- Brand valuation is what brings branding and marketing to the boardroom.
- Marketing is the most important investment to ensure long-term and sustainable financial growth for companies.
- Brand valuation is not just about the number. What's more important are the reasons behind a companies growth or decline - the reasons behind the change when sticking to one valuation system.
I understand where Mark's coming from, but I would have casted a vote for brilliant.