2014年经济学人 品牌的价值 无法触摸的无形资产

Accounting¹ for brands

Untouchable intangibles

Sometimes you see brands on the balance-sheet, sometimes you don't

COCA-COLA is worth 79.2 billion, according to Interbrand, a consultant². That does not seem excessive for the brand responsible for making Santa Claus look so jolly. But neither that number nor anything close to it appears on the company's balance-sheet. “Trademarks with indefinite lives”are worth just 6.7 billion, say the company's accounts.

The reason is that both American and international accounting rules prohibit companies from recognising brands and many other “intangible” assets (such as customer lists) if they have created them themselves. Some would like to change that. Roger Sinclair, who advises the MASB, an American body that sets marketing³ standards, points out that rules are inconsistent. The value of a brand—invisible when internally generated—is revealed when another company buys it.

That is because a different rule applies to acquisitions. In 2005 Procter & Gamble, a consumer-goods company, paid 57 billion for the Gillette razor company. The brand alone, P&G reckoned, was worth 24 billion. Oddly, Gillette's value can now only go down. P&G must test it for “impairment” but cannot acknowledge any increase, though Interbrand says Gillette's value rose 1% last year.

Investors⁴ have a right to know how much brands are worth because so much of a firm's future depends on them, Mr Sinclair argues. The conflicting standards treat brands rather as if they were electrons that can be in two places at once.

Accountants seem content to live with such quantum weirdness⁵. Brand values can “swing wildly”, says Alan Teixeira of the International Accounting Standards Board. Standard-setters worry that auditors⁶ would be quick to recognise rises but slow to acknowledge declines. Brands are unique, so it is hard to figure out what their market value is. “How do you separate a brand from customers that generate the sales or the know-how⁷ that enables the product to be made?” wonders Hilary Eastman of PwC, an accounting firm.

Australia used to account for internally generated brands but gave it up in 2005 to align⁸ itself with international standards. It “put much more focus on brands” and gave markets extra information, says Angus Thomson of the Australian Accounting Standards Board. He would like to see the practice restored but is not hopeful. If it's intangible, bean-counters won't touch it.

1 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

2 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

3 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

4 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

5 weirdness   

n.古怪，离奇，不可思议

参考例句：

• The weirdness of the city by night held her attention. 夜间城市的古怪景象吸引了她的注意力。
• But that's not the end of the weirdness feasible in evolutionary systems. 然而这还不是进化系统居然可行的最怪异的地方呐。

6 auditors   

n.审计员，稽核员( auditor的名词复数 )；（大学课程的）旁听生

参考例句：

• The company has been in litigation with its previous auditors for a full year. 那家公司与前任审计员已打了整整一年的官司。
• a meeting to discuss the annual accounts and the auditors' report thereon 讨论年度报表及其审计报告的会议

7 know-how   

n.知识；技术；诀窍

参考例句：

• He hasn't got the know-how to run a farm.他没有经营农场的专业知识。
• I don't have much know-how about engines.发动机方面的技术知识我知之甚少。

8 align   

vt.使成一线，结盟，调节；vi.成一线，结盟

参考例句：

• Align the ruler and the middle of the paper.使尺子与纸张的中部成一条直线。
• There are signs that the prime minister is aligning himself with the liberals.有迹象表明首相正在与自由党人结盟。