Ujawnianie kapitału marki w rachunkowości − wyniki badań empirycznych
Brand equity disclosures in accounting − results of empirical research

Summary/Abstract: The brand can represent a significant part of the value of a whole company. For example, the name of famous Coca-Cola, which is not disclosed in the balance sheet of this corporation, according to the British consulting group, Interbrand, is estimated to be worth almost 67.5 billion dollars. This amount represents about 50% of the firm’s current market value. Brand equity is considered to be the source of brand value. This category came into prominence and started to be perceived as an important element of company resources at the beginning of the 1980s. Reaching the saturation level by most of the consumer markets, dramatic inflation of marketing and especially advertising costs and growing importance of the distribution channels are the main factors of increasing introduction costs for brands as well as increasing risk of this introduction. Also there were many high-value acquisition transactions, whose main goal was to take over popular brands. Brand equity may be definied as a set of assets and liabilities – more generally – strengths and weaknesses that add to or substract from value to a product or service, which are: brand loyalty, awareness, perceived quality and associations (brand image). Brand – as an important factor which has influence on the company value and its competitive position – should be measured and disclosed in the financial statements. In the light of main financial accounting concepts and in the face of limitations (restrictions) of currently used methods of valuation, the annual report is the best form of brand equity presentation. For building brand equity it is useful and possible to use appropriate method of management (also tools offerred by management accounting). Deciding that the annual report would probably be the best medium for brand equity presentation, the authors would like to find out what the current state of art is – What the character and range of information about brands published in annual reports was like? What the companies wanted to show investors and other users of annual reports? The findings of the research indicate that there are tendencies to voluntarily present disclosures of brands in annual reports. But the character and range of these disclosures were very different, so as a result it was was very difficult to compare that information both with regard to space and time.

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