For most companies, an intangible asset, brand equity, is the largest single component of their market capitalization. Despite the enormous financial and strategic importance of brand equity to all stakeholders, most companies have no brand equity building plan and no brand equity building process.

EMM Group believes that brand equity building is one of the three most important responsibilities of the marketing function along with delivering the annual marketing plan’s financial goals and generating new customer insights. That’s why we put long-term brand equity planning at the heart of the demand generation process. We believe every aspect of the overall marketing process should center on building brand equity. This includes the upstream elements of the demand generation process such as Consumer insight development and customer segmentation, as well as the downstream elements, such as annual marketing planning, integrated marketing planning and marketing measurement and marketing metrics.

EMM Group’s brand equity building process comprises a disciplined approach to guide the creative process and nurture long-term brand health. It starts with a clear shared brand vision and then turns that vision into reality with a long-term brand equity development plan guided by brand equity metrics that encourage continuous improvement.

The long-term brand equity building plan includes concepts such as the brand vision -- the ambitious goal that becomes the focus for all company marketing and brand development activities.

The long-term brand equity development plan includes a brand challenge, the elements of the competitive landscape that must be overcome to realize the brand vision. This challenge guides the brand’s long-term learning plan and insight development process as well as new product development and new service development activities.

The long-term plan includes a set of specific activities aimed at delivering brand equity goals as well as volume and profit goals.

One practical output of this process is the Master Creative Brief which includes all the elements guiding downstream creative development. It addresses practical elements of brand architecture as well as brand positioning, advertising copy strategy, the brand promise and brand communications strategies.

EMM Group has put these principles in practice for some of the world’s leading brand owners, solving problems of relevance, differentiation, brand innovation and growth. In consumer packaged goods, financial services, technology, health care and B2B products and services, we have been able to solve brand business problems quickly and effectively.