Consumer 1 : City 0

My first blog article, Jobs Aren't For Life. Neither Are Brands, picked up an issue raised in the book, The Brand Bubble. That city valuation of the intangible brand had risen six-fold in the last 10 years - from an average 5% to 30% of a company's valuation. During this same period, consumer valuation of brands has fallen quite markedly. Brand trust today is half what it was 10 years ago. Well the bubble did burst. The consumer, it seems, was right not to trust some brands. And we find ourselves with the task of rebuilding both brand trust and share price.

In the past, successes of a few, like Google, have had a halo effect on all share prices. But as the bubble burst, plummeting trust levels of financial brands were closely and visibly linked with plummeting share prices. For the first time, brand trust = brand value. As we come out of the current dip, the shares which recover fastest may well be businesses and brands with a proven advantage, clear point of difference and stable trust levels. Chastened, more careful investors will look a bit closer at what a brand really offers before deciding which shares represent a good investment.

Download a pdf summary of The Brand Bubble here.