DESIGN: BRANDS IN THE BOARDROOM - How can the board be sure that its investment in branding is helping to deliver the bottom line?

The concept of a brand's value has never had such a high profile, and as a consequence the role the brand plays in a company's success is being ever more closely scrutinised. There are two main drivers for this scrutiny. As Hans Arnold, the head of consulting at Enterprise IG, says: 'There are the shareholders who want better reporting on intangibles, such as the brand; and there is the boardroom, where people understand that brand is important and brand investment is becoming more expensive, and they want to see a return on their investment.'

At the same time, the pressure on companies to perform is increasing.

Every sector is getting more crowded and markets are becoming more mature, making the brand instrumental in gaining any competitive advantage. Investing effectively in your brand can either shift more product or can allow you to increase the price of the product.

And who wouldn't like to know which part of the brand investment was helping to deliver this? As brand increases in relevance and climbs higher up the corporate agenda, it has had to start talking in a way that means something in the boardroom.

Hence the rise of tools to measure investment in brand. Interbrand was credited with starting it, back in the 80s. Now, every brand consultancy worth their salt either has their own trademarked valuation system, or is aligned to a company specialising in this area, or both.

Landor has teamed up with BrandEconomics to exploit its BrandAsset Valuator database; Enterprise IG is putting together a system that links brand with business performance; Siegelgale launched Human Brand Interaction to evaluate brand experience in November; Nucleus operates BrandDueDiligence, which measures brand issues during the pre-announcement phase of mergers and acquisitions; and McCann-Erickson is working on a 'brand engagement measurement', which will launch in late May or June.

Add to that all the experts such as Brand Finance, and the choice for clients seems endless. These systems seem to be getting more complex, and given the nature of branding these days, that's hardly surprising.