It is hardly worth saying that finances such as cash flow, costs, profits etc. is what drives a large quantity of business decisions. This makes sense on many levels, if you don’t have the financial resources to pay for a certain decision, then it can’t be done. More often than not, following the money can help point you to the more successful parts of your business and show you where future investment should be aimed. Yet, numbers cannot always tell you the full story. They may even lead you down a wrong path if you make the bottom line your sole priority. Therefore, you need to ask yourself what alternatives there are to solely examining the budget sheets, to work out where to take your company.
Your company may benefit from something such as a brand tracker, which helps a company by showing them how their brand is performing within their market, and against key competitors. It goes beyond simple commercial success. The problem with which it can show you where you have been successful in the past, and not where you’re going to succeed in the future. Also, when it comes to money coming in and out of a company, there has to be an element of speculation. For example, if a company that made different foodstuffs added a certain ingredient to a product they made, then that product skyrocketed in popularity, it would be a fair assumption of the company that it was the new ingredient that did this. It cannot be shown, by the finances alone, that this is the case. There could be external factors that affect the product, something that cannot be shown in figures alone.
A brand tracker is also able to give you an impartial review of how your brand is doing, and allow you to see your brand from a different perspective, one from outside the company. Thus, it can help you see your brand without those rose tinted glasses that may distort your own impartial view. In fact, this is where brand trackers are most similar to the finances of a business, in the fact they are both impartial and cannot be distorted. Thus, the balance sheets, teamed up with a brand tracker, can be a very strong combination, that gives you a more full rounded picture of the current state of your company and brand, and can allow you to see the success of your past, while being able to signpost the directions for your company’s future.
