Beyond the Logo: Understanding Brand Value Through Economics

Organizations today are investing heavily in marketing and digital transformation — yet many still struggle with the basics:

👉 What actually makes a brand valuable?

Is it the logo, the trademark, the balance sheet? Or is it something deeper, tied to culture, customer experience, and trust?

To unpack this, I spoke with Mark Raza, Brand Economist at Strata Insights, who has worked with global brands like Lululemon and led research into how organizations can measure, grow, and sustain brand value.

Lessons from Lululemon: Brand Value Beyond the Balance Sheet

Mark's perspective was shaped early in his career while working at Lululemon — before it became the global powerhouse it is today.

Instead of investing in traditional advertising, the brand focused on two things:

• Community
• Culture

This approach radically differed from other athletic brands, which leaned heavily on media spend. By building authentic connections internally (with employees) and externally (with local communities), Lululemon created a brand so strong that:

• They didn't need to rely on constant ad campaigns.
• Customers were willing to pay premium prices without discounts.
• Their brand equity became a competitive moat that drove sustainable growth.

It proved that brand value isn't just a financial number — it's an ecosystem built on trust, relevance, and reputation.

Defining Brand: More Than a Logo

Many organizations mistakenly equate brand with their logo, colors, or trademark. But as Mark points out:

• Logos can change — without fundamentally changing what customers believe about you.
• Brand is about relevance — does what you do matter to me as a customer?
• Reputation is about credibility — do I trust you to deliver consistently?

The authentic brand is a messy ecosystem:

• Culture and internal values.
• Customer experiences across touchpoints.
• Distribution and fulfillment.
• Product or service quality.
• Marketing, advertising, and design.

It's like Earth's ecosystem: the most important parts are often invisible (e.g., the ozone layer and magnetic fields). The same goes for brands — much of their strength lies in intangible assets.

Brand as an Ecosystem (and a Team Sport)

Brand shouldn't be siloed under the CMO. Instead, it's a team sport:

• HR shapes culture and employee engagement.
• Operations affect fulfillment and customer satisfaction.
• R&D ensures innovation backs up marketing promises.
• Finance aligns investments with brand-building initiatives.
• Marketing & Sales communicate the story externally.

Without alignment, even strong campaigns can collapse. Mark used United Airlines as a cautionary tale: after a passenger was violently dragged off an overbooked flight, the brand lost $900M in market capitalization in 24 hours. No ad campaign could fix the damage caused by a poor brand ecosystem.

Brand Economics: How to Measure Value

So how do you put a number on something intangible? Enter brand economics.

Mark breaks it into two layers:

1. Brand Valuation – the traditional financial measure of how much the brand contributes to revenue.
2. Brand Strength – the underlying drivers: culture, engagement, reputation, and customer experience.

The first can fluctuate with market risks. The second is what truly sustains long-term value.

For example, in one client case:

• Instead of positioning a sponsorship as a sales tactic, the company reframed it as an employee engagement initiative.
• The result? Stronger culture, more profound brand love, and ultimately more external advocacy — even though the short-term revenue impact wasn't apparent on the balance sheet.

Fixing a Siloed Organization

Most companies are structured in silos — each department chasing its own KPIs. This creates defensive mindsets:

• Wins are celebrated individually.
• Losses are blamed on other teams.

Brand economics flips this. Companies align departments around a common purpose by tying shared KPIs to brand outcomes (e.g., customer experience, innovation, trust).

It requires uncomfortable honesty: surveying employees, clients, and suppliers to understand what drives brand equity — then acting on it.

Digital Strategy and the Brand Mix

Today, many organizations think "brand" = "digital." But Mark warns against tunnel vision.

He frames digital as one slice of four overlapping pies:

1. Digital World – websites, apps, social media.
2. Media Mix – including traditional channels like TV, radio, and billboards.
3. Marketing Mix – PR, partnerships, content, campaigns.
4. Brand Mix – the larger ecosystem, including culture, fulfillment, innovation, and customer trust.

Digital transformation is critical, but if new apps, platforms, or e-commerce systems don't align with the larger brand ecosystem, they risk eroding trust instead of building it.

First Steps for Leaders

If you're wondering where to start, Mark suggests:

1. Survey employees first. They're the canaries in the coal mine. If your culture is toxic, your brand is already in trouble.
2. Contrast internal vs. external perception. What management believes may not match how employees, suppliers, and customers experience the brand.
3. Redefine impact. Don't focus on brand "value" as a number — focus on brand equity and strength (culture, reputation, engagement).
4. Invest where it matters. Find out what your stakeholders truly value and double down.

Ultimately, customers pay for perceived value. If they feel they're getting more than what they paid for, revenues grow, churn decreases, and advocacy spreads.

Wrapping It Up

Brand isn't a logo. It isn't a marketing department project. It's your organization's ecosystem — culture, customer experience, distribution, digital, and reputation all working together.

Get that right, and you build brand value and a resilient competitive advantage.

👉 Want to align your digital strategy with brand economics? Talk to Tennis.

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