英语论文网

当帝国烟草在七月份作出将投资71亿美元扩大其业务在美国,其首席执行官,艾莉森·库珀在坚持一点:它将不会购买其它的公司。相反,在美国和罗瑞拉德烟草公司三方面他们接纳了一个工厂,一个销售人员,最重要的是他们进行了品牌的集合。他们中的两个,温斯顿和Blu(一个电子香烟品牌),将“关注最多的时间和金钱投资”。

没有管理专家会觉得奇怪,帝国会花70亿美元购买这样一个似有似无的品牌。他们是最有价值的东西,苹果等公司和麦当劳的价值往往比财产和机械更加有用。品牌占30%以上的股票市值的公司在标准普尔500指数之中,Millward Brown认为市场研究公司提供的数据显示到。每个人都知道一个拉尔夫•劳伦马球衬衫成本超过一个马球衬衫;可口可乐没有商标只是可乐。库珀希望利用温斯顿的“尚未开发的品牌资产”。

WHEN Imperial Tobacco, the world’s fourth-largest cigarette-maker, said in July that it would spend $7.1 billion to expand its business in America, its chief executive, Alison Cooper, was adamant on one point: it will not be buying companies. Instead, in a three-way deal with Reynolds American and Lorillard, it will pick up a factory, a sales force and, above all, a collection of brands. Two of them, Winston and Blu (an electronic-cigarette brand), will be “the focus for the lion’s share of time and money invested”.

No management expert would think it strange that Imperial would spend the best part of $7 billion on something as ethereal as brands. They are the most valuable thing that companies as diverse as Apple and McDonald’s own, often worth much more than property and machinery. Brands account for more than 30% of the stockmarket value of companies in the S&P 500 index, reckons Millward Brown, a market-research company. Everyone knows that a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt costs more than a polo shirt; Coke without the logo is just cola. Ms Cooper hopes to exploit Winston’s “untapped brand equity”.

Yet arguments rage about how much brands are worth and why. Firms that value them come to starkly different conclusions. Most of the time they do not appear as assets on companies’ balance-sheets (see article). One school of thought says brands succeed mainly by inspiring loyalty. “Consumers would die for Apple,” believes Nick Cooper of Millward Brown. Others take a cooler view. Bruce McColl, who as the chief marketer of Mars oversees Snickers chocolate bars, Whiskas cat food and other brands, is on record as saying that “consumers aren’t out there thinking about our brands.” And however much brands may have been worth in the past, their importance may be fading.

Brands, of course, vary. Some identify products that are distinctive (like The Economist, we hope). Others confer distinction on products that are otherwise hard to tell apart, such as cola. The brands of banks and insurers are shaped less by advertising and marketing (the usual ways of building a brand) than by customers’ experiences, points out Simon Glynn of Lippincott, a consulting firm. In such cases, consumers get the message only if employees do.

The idea of brand equity arose in America in the 1980s after a bout of cut-throat discounting by consumer-goods companies, which prompted them to look本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。