Brands are truly the dark horses of the stock market. They have no places in a statutory financial statement. However, they may drive the entire net worth of a corporation. Brands occupy the daily attentions of top business management teams. Privileged industry circles track brands with great care, though stock investment circles rarely mention them at all.
Some brands are kept in cold storage. An acquisition is the most common reason. Executives, who represent the buyer of a corporation, tend to display the attitudes of step-parents towards the stable of brands in a vanquished company. This is ironic since the neglected brands may offer best chances of early pay-back on investments.
Scarce resources also force business management teams to choose between brands. The top ones are nourished at the costs of ones that are subjectively considered lesser. Markets and customer preferences are notoriously fickle. That is why inactive brands may suddenly become stars once again. The resurgence of small automobiles, which first came on British roads five decades ago, is an example.
The third world offers many opportunities for recycling mature brands in the United States. No nuclear plant has been built here since 1978, but they are the rage of New Delhi in India. This is also an example of how a brand may be an industrial rather than a consumer offering.
It takes some digging to find hidden brands in the dark corners of a large corporation, but the rewards are considerable. Naturally, this calls for coordination between the new owners of a company and the people who work there. After all, what is the point of seeing business potential in a brand, but remaining a mute spectator to its demise?
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