Innovate or imitate
The most valuable business assets are no longer land, plants and machines, but brands. By the same token, more and more companies are simply worth what their brands are worth.
"Research conducted by consulting company KPMG for a number of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange shows that intangible assets make up between 21 to 96 percent of a company's capitalization, while the average is 64 percent," says Tomasz Winiewski, a partner at KPMG. Winiewski explains that most of the market value of such assets is constituted by brands, while the rest are customer relations, patents, know-how and goodwill.
Doing business these days means selling brands, not commodities. "We just sell brands," admits Stefan Golonka, CEO of Kraft Food Polska. "Commodities do not matter, the real value of the brand is how the consumer perceives it," adds Carlo Vassallo, director general of Ferrero Polska.
The brand gives added value to the consumer, which consists of both good quality and emotional factors. "Products have grown very similar to each other, hence emotional values play an increasingly greater role," says Jakub Rempel, director general of Felix Polska. However, the quality of the product is something that should not be forgotten.
Alessandro Tosolini, director general of Procter & Gamble, points out that there are two business strategies for companies nowadays, innovate or imitate, and imitators are getting faster and faster. This is particulary visible with proliferating supermarket brands. However, this is seen by some as healthy competition. "It's good that there are store labels, because it puts more pressure on us to innovate," says Tisolini.
