• Mr. William Hanlin, Chairman of IACVS was invited to serve as the Vice Chairman of the Expert Committee of the International Brand Academy (IABS)

• The inaugural meeting of the International Academy of Brand Sciences was held in Ningbo on October 12th, 2022 through online and offline methods. In addition to the main venue in Ningbo, the inaugural meeting also set up more than 20 sub-venues across the country, and a total of 36,000 people watched the live broadcast of the meeting online by video. The theme of this conference is "Establishing a scientific and fair international brand evaluation mechanism to promote the healthy development of global brands." Mr William Hanlin, chairman of IACVS, accepted the invitation of the international brand academy, served as the vice chairman of the expert committee and chairman of the brand evaluation committee of the international brand academy, and delivered a keynote speech by video.  Below is the speech of Mr. Hanlin.

  Hello Ladies and Gentlemen. 

  Greetings to Chairman Liu Pingjun.

  It is my pleasure to be asked to give these few remarks to those assembled for this Founding Conference of the IABS.  The IABS is a project that has been in development since before 2014.  It is gratifying to see that the early participants of this concept-project have been diligent in the pursuit of brand evaluation.

  For both myself, and the worldwide membership of IACVS (International Association of Certified Valuation Specialists), we are very excited to be a part of the IABS Brand Evaluation project.

  Brand valuation is not a new concept.  This is really a sub-set of the larger business valuation profession.  Brand evaluation has broader ramifications to a more comprehensive and global community of participants.  These participants include:

• • Customers
  • Employees
  • Investors
  • Manufactures
  • Service providers
  • Local, regional and country-wide governments and their economies
  • Others, yet to be identified

• Make no mistake, brands are very important intangible assets to every company and endeavor.  But most people who value brands consider them to be another commodity, another balance sheet asset to be included in a group of assets.  (Untrained business valuers often miss the fact that brands have significant value). 

  Recent studies of collected data from the last 15 years indicate that intangibles such as brands or product names reached 90% of the market value of S&P 500 companies. Additionally, customer relations is the most important of all intangible assets, accounting for 25% of total company value. Next in line are software and technology, at 18% each of total company value.  And trademarks account for 8% of company value.

  Valuation of brands is beneficial, however, only to a few, namely investors…and perhaps to the regulators of financial statements for large public companies.  Even the idea of brands having a financial value, while not a new idea, only began to be formalized beginning in 1991-1992.

  The IABS Brand Evaluation project will encompass a broad range of aspects of a brand.  Financial aspects are still very important, but the dimensions of brand evaluation will need to include more than just the financial aspects.  The IABS will develop and deploy innovative models and methodology of brand evaluation that addresses the requirements of the ISO Standard for Brand Evaluation.  These standards includes at least the following elements:

• • Tangible aspects that include material resources, financial resources, legal protection and legal costs, marketing budgets and more.
  • Quality aspects that include actual quality commitments, management of those commitments to quality, perceived quality and customer involvement.  These aspects will need to be documented and then reviewed under a quality management system.  Price-to-quality will be considered.
  • Service aspects will include service offerings, capabilities and effectiveness.  Effectiveness will be measures by training of technicians, availability of the technicians and, of course, customer satisfaction.
  • Innovation aspects will include an evaluation of the ability to innovate and improve, research efforts to confirm customer needs, and spending for research and development.
  • Financial aspects will include all of the valuation techniques currently employed for valuation of brands.

Brand Evaluation will eventually influence buyers of products and services everywhere.  This will be important to developed countries as well as developing countries.  The brand evaluation of products and services will make more clear the choices that are available to consumers, and will also bring to the market products that are deemed worthy of consideration by customers on a broader scale.  This will be important for the countries whose economies already hold significant market shares of various products and/or services.  This will also become essential to developing countries eager to share their domestic products/services that can be enjoyed by a wider and more global economy. Better economies around the world will mean more commerce and ultimately more harmony among people.

Brand valuation is an accepted aspect of finance and financial reporting around the world.  Brand evaluation will become more important than mere financial considerations.

I am very happy to have been invited to participate in this very important next step in creating a more transparent platform for brand evaluation.

There is much work to do!

Congratulation to all of the participants of this Founding Conference of the IABS!

I look forward to meeting all of you at that future point in time when we can convene in person again.

Other speakers also stressed that today's world has entered the era of brand economy, and the international market has risen from price competition and quality competition to brand competition. The purpose of the International Academy of Brand Sciences is to follow the international standards of brand evaluation, support countries to establish brand evaluation standard systems and publishing mechanisms, and finally form a scientific and fair brand evaluation standard system and publishing mechanism all over the world.

Subsequently, the launching ceremony and unveiling ceremony of the International Brand Academy were held at the conference site.

IACVS wishes the conference a complete success!