The authors offer the viewpoint that a requirement to put the value of intangible assets like brands on a company's balance sheet may be in prospect – and that such a requirement would benefit businesses.
Brands and elements of brands like a package can be valued, the authors assert, and describe an experiment to value the Gateway “cowbox” package. In the study, 61 university students saw identical ads for a computer, except that half saw one with a generic name, half with the name Gateway, and half of each of these two subgroups saw a “cowbox,” the other half no package.
The box did not influence the price respondents who saw the Gateway name in their ad said they would expect to pay for the computer. However, the box's presence in an ad for the “no‐name” computer boosted the expected price from $515 to $648.
If one brand element has a measurable value, investors have a right to know that value. The same applies for the brand as a whole. Furthermore, managers benefit from directing marketing dollars to the promotion of valuable brand elements, to associate them in the public mind with their brand.
