Companies around the globe have spent nearly a half-trillion US dollars (USD) annually on branding, exceeding outlays on research and development and design while accounting in some countries for up to a quarter of firms’ overall investments in intangible assets.
WIPO’s second “World Intellectual Property Report” entitled “Brands: Reputation and Image in the Global Marketplace” offers fresh data, analysis and insight into how companies use brands to differentiate their products from those of their rivals – and what the growing use of brands means for consumers, market competition, and innovation.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said: “A brand incarnates an enterprise’s reputation and image and so is one of an enterprise’s most valuable assets. As markets have become more distributed and virtual, the protection provided by trademarks for reputation and image has also become increasingly important.”
According to the report, companies invested some USD $466 billion globally on branding in 2011, the latest year for which there are reliable data. This figure would be even higher if spending on strategic marketing, corporate communications, other bought-in services that contribute to brand perception, as well as company-internal expenditures on branding were also considered. Fuller data for the US, which accounts for all branding expenditures, show that investment in branding stands at USD $340 billion in 2010 for the US alone – twice as much as previous incomplete estimates. This exceeds US companies’ investments in R&D or design, and accounts for a quarter of their intangible asset investments.
While branding investments correlate closely with the level of economic development around the world, rapidly growing middle-income economies such as China and India today invest more in branding than high-income economies did when they were at a comparable development stage.
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Source: WIPO, Press Releases
