Brands as Financial Assets

Abstract

A first lesson in economics at school will include the assertion that the primary purpose of business is the creation of wealth. ‘Wealth’, like ‘business’, is a word heavily encrusted with associations. The acquisition, ownership and distribution of wealth have for centuries excited controversy — often in a way that has little or nothing to do with the nature of wealth itself. If we can try and leave the joys of semantic and moral debate aside, for the purposes of this chapter let us consider ‘wealth’ as the value of all kinds of goods and services that people produce from the resources available to them.