Watching the valuations
We at Shift. have been watching the carnage unfold on Wall Street this week just like everybody else, thinking about our friends who have been affected, and trying to dodge drunk bankers stumbling around the streets of Hong Kong.
Once again, the best summary of the situation comes from the infographic wizards at the New York times. Take a visual look at nearly half of the financial sector’s market value melt away in less than a year.
Interbrand’s brand valuation rankings scheduled to come out next week should provide some interesting reading. Provided they were able to get their armies of interns in this week to revise the numbers, that is.
But with brands like Lehman Brothers, which not long ago was valued at $4bn, now technically worthless we are also reminded of a fundamental truth in branding.
Brands are never really owned by companies. They only exist in people’s heads and continue to do so even after the business disappears. Just witness the $90+ that a Lehman baseball hat is fetching on eBay. Now there’s retro-brand potential if we’ve ever seen it.
The brand is dead. Long live the brand.
At this point we are reminded of a certain 80s song …
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