 [Prof Roger Sinclair] Accountants differ from marketers because the latter deal with people and the former with numbers. Compare the output of their work: marketers produce communications designed to persuade or convince buyers; accountants check the bookkeeping record of the business and prepare financial statements to show the shareholders how well or badly the company has fared. Poles apart you might say...Actually they are closer than most bean counters would like to admit.
|
 [Prof Roger Sinclair] If marketers are looking for an easy time in this new decade, they must think again. There are three core trends that are irresistibly affecting the way marketers conduct their business; and they are each substantial.
|
[Prof Roger Sinclair] I have just read an extraordinary book. It is called Genome: The Autobiography of a Species (that's us). It's written by Matt Ridley, who has a PhD in zoology from Oxford University and has been a science journalist on The Economist. It is not always an easy book to read, but writers trained on that wonderful weekly newspaper know how to make complex matters accessible and Ridley does that to perfection. |
[Prof Roger Sinclair] It came as something of a surprise to me to learn that brand valuation is closely linked to a contributory cause of the world financial credit crisis. A big discussion point right now is how intangible assets that have no active market as a reference should be valued. Apparently, this was one of the major “last straws” in the demise of the banks, which used level ll as the method to value their assets and not level l. If that means little to you, you are not alone. |
[Prof Roger Sinclair] Marketing is under threat. First it was tobacco, now it is alcohol and food, next it will be motor vehicles, carbonated beverages and fast food restaurants. It is not the damage that these products are capable of that worries me; it is the attack on marketing as the cause that should concern the industry. |
[Prof Roger Sinclair] David Bullard was unjustly fired for using this injunction, but I'll do it anyway. Imagine a world in which the financial director defers to his marketing colleague. Even more strange, imagine a world where the marketing director is on the board and sits next to the financial director at the board meeting. |
[Prof Roger Sinclair] I recently finished teaching my 2007 honours course at Wits University in Johannesburg. As has been case for more than 10 years it is based on the work of Kevin Lane Keller who, young as he is, in my view is the father of brand equity theory and practice in the world. This was arguably one of the brightest classes yet. |
[Prof Roger Sinclair] Chris Moerdyk is up in arms about the state of the marketing industry (Time to change the marketing rules). His current irritation has been triggered by the most recent clash between Vodacom and MTN over the Markinor/Sunday Times Top Brands supplement. In this case I don't think this is fair comment on the industry. |
[Prof Roger Sinclair] If I were Absa top management, I would be gnashing my teeth. "How could they," I would ask, "place such a puny value on the brand we have worked so hard to build?" |
[Prof Roger Sinclair] The wonderful world of forecasting... The truth is, nobody knows. It doesn't matter how bright you are or what are your qualifications. Everyone gets it wrong some of the time. If brands were regularly traded at Sotheby's or on the world's capital markets, there would be no need for complex valuation models. The market would set the price. But brands are not often bought or sold. When they are, they are frequently part of the package that goes with the corporate entity that was the target of the acquisition. |
Angola
Botswana
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Cote D'Ivoire
Ghana
Nigeria
Kenya
Uganda
Tanzania
Mauritius
Seychelles
Algeria
Egypt
Morocco
Zambia
