Great article in the Harvard Business Review!
We’ve all been taught that trust and reputation are important elements of branding. Today, though, trust is not simply a nice thing to have, but a critical strategic asset. Therefore, it makes sense to be specific about how and why it adds value. The drivers of brand value have changed over time, and there are three forces at play that have brought the issue of trust to the center stage:
1. If we look at company valuations, an increasing portion of a firm’s value resides in intangibles. In The Brand Bubble, John Gerzema and Edward Lebar highlight the fact that in the 1950s, about 30% of firm value was intangible (at the high end); today it is closer to 62% globally.
Let’s look at some of the components of intangible value. Gerzema and Lebar offer this construct:
