How to value your business

By Ômar Souk*

I opened the hotel fridge and picked a 300 ml mineral water bottle. I opened the bottle and then I looked at its brand, in Spanish: Evian. Below the brand name, in Spanish: . “Água mineral de manancial de los Alpes franceses”. At the back of the label: “La pureza de los Alpes milenarios”. I thought: “This little bottle must be expensive, around five reals.”. However, it was already open, so I had to drink it. I checked the price list. It didn’t cost five reals, but nine. Five dollars for 330 ml water bottle!

At the perfum store at the airport, I found a Roger & Gallet bar of soap from Paris: 23 reals. It wasn’t the price of a dozen bars but the unit price. Such round unit is offered in a fancy reddish plastic case with a golden label. Roger & Gallet is the name of a well-known French cologne. By giving its name to a bar of soap, it maximizes its brand value, even though it is just a simple bar of soap.

I noticed that in the store there was also a perfume that had a well-known pen brand mark: Mont Blanc – those ink ones – very elegant, the ones that people use as a status (1,500 reals each). I picked the bottle and tried Mont Blanc perfume. Amazing – nothing to do with ink smell. The price, however, closely relate to its brand name: 280 reals.

Nine reals for 330 ml-water bottle, a bar of soap for 23 reals and a perfume bottle for 280 reals – and they do sell. They sell because when the person buys Evian they are not just buying some water but the Alpes purity. When acquiring Roger & Gallet, they are not just buying a bar of soap, but a lifestyle. Besides, when using Mont Blanc perfume, they are simply stating: ‘I can!’ They are saying to the world: ‘I am not an ordinary person!’

There are several other examples of maximaizing your brand value: ties for 350 reals (Hermes) and a pair of jeans for 600 reals (Diesel) – not to mention automobiles (Rolls Royce, Ferrari) – whose values are incredibly high.

So, the question is: ‘How can I maximize my brand value?’ The brand value lies on the perception. As Al Ries says: ‘Perception means everything. The rest is merely illusion.’ The brand value starts and finishes in the consumer’s minds. You must redefine the product for you and your customers. In an intelligent way, brands like Evian, Roger & Gallet, Mont Blanc, Hermes, Diesel, Rolls Royce and Ferrari aggregate value to their products for they are symbols of status and prestige.

Competitive commodities, according to the traditional marketing idea, meet all your needs. In order to leave such competition zone, it is important to associate your brand to the human being’s deepest desire: to be different.

(*) Ph.D. in Communication from Ohio University,United States, Ômar Souk is a lecturer and the author of several books like: “Otimismo nos Negócios” e “Os Segredos do Sucesso: Dicas para o Seu Dia-a-dia”.