Bringing Light into the Darkness of Financial Brand Valuation – Insights from 30 Years of Data

Various stakeholders of a company have a high interest in quantifying the value of a brand in monetary units and since the 1990s, numerous brand valuation methods have been developed and applied to thousands of brands. However, the estimated brand values differ significantly for the same brand as well as across brands and time. Executives would like to know which firm conditions and strategies favor the growth of brand value. To answer these questions, we compiled a unique database that includes more than 46,000 financial brand values from 19 different brand-valuation methods covering commercial providers, academic methods as well as real market transactions. The database includes the global financial value of more than 4,300 brands originating from more than 80 countries in the period 1990-2020. Our preliminary results based on a meta-analytic approach reveal systematic differences between brand values with respect to product, geography, time, brand strategy and valuation method. By identifying the true drivers of financial brand value, the results of this paper can serve as a strategic guideline for managers willing to increase their company’s brand value.

Felix Anton Sklenarz is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Alexander Himme in the fields of Management Accounting and Marketing. In his research, he focusses on the impact of Digitization on the measurement and reporting of marketing performance and intangible assets. Felix Anton received his Master’s degree in Management from the Kühne Logistics University in 2018. In his master thesis, he empirically investigated the relationship between market share and financial performance for companies operating in digitized industries. Before his time at KLU, Felix Anton completed his Bachelor’s degree in General Engineering Science at the Technische Universität Hamburg (TUHH) in 2016. During his Bachelor program, he specialized in Computer Science.