Protecting and unlocking the value of a business.

It is a Big Ask for a product to be the only source of what makes a business matter. Even if a business has developed a competitive edge, you can be sure it will be copied. Even if a business has committed to constant innovation, you can be sure they will be one of many swimmers in the pool, keeping more or less abreast, all of them simply trying to stay in the race.

Never mind the Holy Grail of long-term competitive advantage. How do they (a) protect the business they are building? And (b) how do they unlock its potential?

This stuff is crucial. A lot is at stake.

To me, it’s highly unlikely that a company can protect the value of a product – or unlock its potential – without developing its brand.

Returning to Nike to illustrate the point.

Initially, founder Phil Knight and his team were purists, committed to providing superior running shoes for elite athletes. But if Nike was going to grow, it needed to expand its market.

Mattering to elite athletes was one thing. But how to matter to far less motivated folk? You know, to people like you and me. To sell shoes by the truckload, Nike realised that it needed to get people out of bed, off the couch, and onto the streets.

In other words, Nike needed to solve a problem. It needed to create a culture of physical excitement.

How on earth was it going to do that?

That’s when inspiration became a key word in ‘We provide inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.’

A product is developed inside the four walls of a business. Its brand is developed inside the minds of its customers.

Inspiration is an extrinsic. It is ‘outside of the product.’ But because it resonated with to ordinary people like you and me – because it mattered – it helped unlocked the business potential of Nike.

Developing brands. This is not an area of expertise for a traditional management consultancy. But it is something I have been doing for decades – with increasing understanding of how valuable they can be. And how they can be valuable.