I've been really thinking a lot lately about brand equity. This idea that a brand--logo, entity, or what have you--can have inherent value aside from physical assets possessed by the company it is associated with. I heard that Nike lists on its balance sheet that the "swoosh" logo is worth one billion dollars to the company. That's crazy to me. I mean, not crazy like I don't agree, but crazy like I can't believe a brand can be so well known, so recognizable, that its name and symbol can be so valuable. I think that is at the heart of all marketing strategy.
Think about companies like Apple, Coca-Cola, Gibson Guitars, Audi, General Electric, Delta Airlines. Did I say Apple? We trust these companies. It doesn't even matter what is in the box, when we make a purchase from these firms, we know what we're getting before we open it. That's what I love about marketing. It is possible, through strategic planning and careful execution, to shape a buyer's preferences in an ever-changing marketplace of choices. Even if we're selling the same thing as the three other competitors, we can sway the buyer to choose us and tell everyone he knows to choose us too! It doesn't matter what's in the box; people buy things that are marketed well. And that's really cool to me.