A month or so ago, we were prospecting a new client. Like most entrepreneurs he was extremely passionate and highly persuasive after investing an hour to hear about his product. We left the meeting with a good rapport and plans to follow up in a week or two with a proposal of marketing their product that we felt had potential.

What was planned to be a normal discover-proposal-execution process turned out to be a series of emails, phone discussions and follow up meetings. You’re probably saying to yourself, you guys must be doing something wrong in qualifying this client. Perhaps, but maybe not…

We scheduled another meeting to present our approach on how we would take this prospects product from concept to retail and what programs we would utilize to for a successful go-to-market strategy. As it turned out the client fibbed about their relationship with potential “guaranteed” retail buyers and did not disclose when asked if he was the real decision maker.

Our planned proposal meeting was planned and as the meeting got started, the man who had ultimate authority to say “yeah” or “nay” on the project ended up being 30 minutes to the presentation.

Anyone who sells for a living knows that this is the ultimate “deal-breaker” scenario. He (main decision maker) joined us and as expected we had to start over again from the beginning and rush through the main points of understanding (we only had an hour) on how building a brand first and then conducting marketing tactics like advertising and infomercials was the best-practices approach versus just storming to market without a through brand foundation – this approach was being pitched by a major infomercial company out of Iowa.

Years of experience has convinced me that without understanding what the brand is, any business risks hanging their investments on the precipice of failure or mediocrity. This argument is what prompted the decision maker to ask the question: How much does it cost to build a brand? – the topic of this blog entry.

Taken from Interbrand Top 100 Global Brands – published in Business Week July 2005.

When 64% of the market value of the world’s most valuable brand (Coca-Cola) is intangible – shown on the balance sheet as $67 billion* in “Brand Value” – there’s something very important here. Think about it – $67 billion in real dollar value – not for bricks and mortar, inventory or equipment – but rather for the economic power of the Coca-Cola name and what it stands for – the power to influence selection of one sugary liquid over others.

The total intangible Brand Value on the balance sheets of the companies that own the world’s top 100 brands is more than $1 trillion!* Another WOW! But this is not just about megacompanies. This is about building intangible Brand Value in any-size company or organization – building the power to differentiate your brand with such clarity of competitive value that selecting your brand over others is an easy choice.

How long does it take to build a brand? I think the answer lies in the importance, need and positioning of the product. Brands like McDonalds, Disney, IBM, Sony and Kodak took many years to build – were brands like Google, iPod, and Facebook took only 1-3 years. No one knows exactly how many millions of dollars where spent on advertising and other business activities, but the fact is if you have a product or service that is truly unique, and that essentially creates a new category – chances are you could build a multi-million or billion dollar brand very fast.

For the rest of us – iPods, Googles and Facebooks don’t happen every day. That is why we continue to advocate brand understanding as the first step in building any kind of business.

We presented our price, shook hands and left knowing this deal wasn’t going to happen. I don’t know where this company or product is no, there website is still not updated and have yet to see an informercial on television. We still believe in the brand development process as we have seen what a strong brand can do and how much value it can bring.

* Preempt your competition
* Increase profitability for long-term sustainability
* Consistent brand delivery spurs employee motivation
* Increase the value of your company over time
* Brand definition brings clarity to your business goals and direction
* A well developed brand works for you 24/7