最具价值和最强大的荷兰品牌年度报告

Improve YourBrand Management, • Seventeen years ofBrand Finance studyingthe value of intangibleassets has revealed glaring inaccuracies infinancial accounting forassets, mostly due to adearth of knowledge •Internally, this lack ofknowledge of whatintangible assets are Alex HaighDirector, Brand Finance owned and what theyare worth is causing amisallocation ofinvestment andineffective brandmanagement •Misunderstanding ofintangible asset valuehas also led to billionsof dollars in companyfines and the introduction of a newglobal initiative to tacklebase erosion and profitshifting (BEPS), whichis putting brands at thetop of the businessagenda The total value of assets on global stock markets at the end of thefinancial year surpassed US$100 trillion for the first time in history toreach US$109.3 trillion. At the start of our study 17 years ago, that figure Of the US$30.9 trillion in 2001, US$14.5 trillion was disclosed oncompanies’ balance sheets and US$16.4 trillion was not. Today,US$65.6 trillion is internally understood and disclosed on balance Between 2001 and 2007, the proportion of value explained bybalance sheets was on average 50% of total value, with 50% of valueunexplained and undisclosed. Following the financial crisis, therewas greater clarity on the value of businesses since the “new normal” One would think that this reduction in undisclosed value was a sign thatreporting of business assets was improving and to some extent they would be right: the proportion of disclosedintangible assets and goodwillincreased to around 20% of total While the quality of financial reporting doesnot necessarily mean poor quality of internalreporting and management accounting, alack of external oversight often correlateswith a lack of internal understanding. Where However, since 2011 we have seen adownward trend and now explainedvalue is at a nadir – disclosedintangible assets (including Alex HaighDirector, Brand Fiance Managing and pricingthe use of intangibles ‘Transfer pricing’ refers to the practice of pricing transactions betweencompanies within a commonly controlled group. The concept isoriginally a management accounting one, used by companies to ensurethat individual divisions profit maximise in the absence of a true market Most everyday transactions, such as selling raw materials in aproduction process, are obvious and simple as there is an easily recognise, understand and account for. Charging for the use of brands Brands and other IP are assets that one party owns and another uses. Inany third party transaction, the user would usually be expected to pay theowner for the privilege of use. Internally, the use by one group company How does this relateto brand and A profit-seeking brand owner and its profit-seeking brand usercounterpart would both aim to maximise the return they receive from thedeal partly through forceful negotiation but also through the professional Virgin, which owns its brand in a subsidiary called Virgin Enterprises,is a particularly clear case in point. Virgin does not own majority stakesin most of its companies. Instead, it operates a minority stake andbrand licence model where management identify opportunities that will The company audits any brand-related investments or partnerships,prevents improper use by licensees or counterfeiting by unscrupulousthird parties, and manages its valuable intellectual property much like become one of the world’s mostrecognised brands and one of the Surprisingly, this sort ofcommercial management isoften not present within groupcompanies despite the fact that As a result, companies are oftenunable to say where their brandsare owned or by whom; which isboth complicated by new BEPS ownership requirements and essential for managing a complicated This lack of understanding means that subsidiaries are often unclearon how they can use their brands. This can be as basic a point as whatcolours should be used for a business card or as important a question This frequently means that a company’s portfolio of brands becomesconfused, slowing down business and reducing the efficacy of attempts Most people now accept that brands hold significant value, principallyas a result of the demand that they generate through customers’perceptions of their quality and reputation. Where brands or brand As a simple example of this, consider what would happen to milk sales ina supermarket if the “Dairy” sign was on the wrong side of the shop floor. It could be argued that formally granting a licence betweendifferent parts of the same company – where ultimately the sameset of shareholders will benefit from the licence exploitation– is bureaucratic and unnecessary. However, every part of an What relevance does As far back as 2001, the UN noticed the relevance and importanceof allocating appropriate value to activities within as well as betweenmultinationals. In that year, the Ad Hoc Group of Experts on InternationalCooperation in Tax Matters identified