Companies Thrive When Brand Value Lives

In society, “success” is proportional to the extent to which one benefits others. In the business world, a successful company is one that has many products that sell well and enjoy a strong reputation. If a product sells widely, that means it offers corresponding value to consumers and benefits them.

The results of success are brand value and profit. A product that people trust and a brand that many consumers buy likely mean that it is that reliable. Because of the credibility of such products, people continue to purchase them with confidence. In fact, most best-selling products are those that offer good quality at low prices. This is why so many companies devote enormous time and effort to building their products into brands.

When a company’s brand succeeds in this way, both the company and the brand establish a firm position in the market. This enables the company to secure a stable business environment and seek expansion into new products. That is because if the same brand name is used, even products in different categories can inherit consumers’ trust in the existing brand.

In modern society, there are many cases in which a corporate brand painstakingly built up by a company is lost in an instant. Among the most devastating causes is a “scandal.” Companies need to be prepared to manage risks and respond to hidden dangers. When a scandal seriously damaging to a company occurs, how it responds can minimize the side effects.

Problems usually arise in a wide range of areas, including products and manufacturing processes, management and shareholders, and employees. They may also be distorted or exaggerated through the media. Issues arising from the external political and social environment may also threaten a corporate brand. The larger the company, the more easily it is exposed to risk. In this process, policies may change and the institutional environment for businesses may worsen. In such cases, the costs and efforts invested in building a differentiated premium image, as well as the brand value itself, can vanish in an instant.

Competition among companies is becoming ever fiercer not only in our society but also in the global market. Under these conditions, creating new brand value is becoming increasingly difficult. Brand value is therefore a precious asset that must be protected. Companies themselves must work to ensure that the value of their brands is not damaged, but the media and civil society must also make a shared effort to prevent corporate brand value from being easily harmed by exaggerated reporting and deliberate attacks.

The moment a company becomes complacent and thinks, “This is good enough,” it begins to move farther away from greater opportunities and the success they can bring. In a rapidly changing world, the path to survival is to strengthen competitiveness and increase brand power.

There is a saying: “A tiger dies and leaves its hide; a person dies and leaves a name behind.” In modern business terms, this means that whether an individual or a company, one should cultivate one’s name into a brand and leave it behind as an icon of success and a symbol of trust. This is the age of the brand. Turning oneself into a brand that people trust is precisely what “sustainable management” means.

Sung-no Choi

Vice President, Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: 브랜드 가치 살아야 기업 산다

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2017-11-12

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=press&pn=27&idx=10769