Marketing IP is the first building block of Competitive Advantage and Business Success.

Most of us in business see the brand only via its physical or visual manifestation (VM) as in name, logo and tag line.

However the power of the brand is more than the VM, just as the role of Intellectual Property (IP) is more than just trademarks and patents.

Although IP and Brand issues are usually thought of as completely different– we should think of them as similar. Both are often design or graphic related, both have significant existing and emerging governance
issues, they are both part of risk management, but the problem lies in the Marketing function not contributing to a company’s strategic risk assessment and governance program.

In Marketing terms IP is much more than just graphics, and business success is only achieved through successful marketing (the full 4 P’s) – yet as a discipline, Marketing is often discounted in its importance or needs when compared to legals and finance i.e. when it comes to the “serious” management disciplines and governance.

We have all heard of the premise in business – that 8/10 companies fail within the first two years. We are also consistently reminded that it is the private sector, especially small business, that is the cornerstone of employment, growth and innovation in the economy. Surely then, any element that is crucial to this economic success has to be given more than a cursory glance.

Each business must strive for a break or position in the market that will deliver them revenue and profit. Aiming for that little point of difference, each will endeavour to design and create unique offerings, ways of working, delivery methods, better or new products, streamline processes, look to technology, geography, distribution, language and culture – anything that can provide an edge.

This drive for any “uniqueness”, and its subsequent application by the company into the marketplace provides revenue opportunities that otherwise would not exist. In Marketing, it is the two (2) elements of: 1. The actual process of finding and developing “uniqueness”, combined with 2. The resulting unique elements themselves, which form the basis of potentially all the USP’s and Competitive Advantages (CA) of the business.

This new “advantage” or CA is what delivers each company more money, or at the very least allows them to stay in business. It is also this same revenue generating “uniqueness or CA”, which by its very nature is a company’s IP, the same IP that we patent or trademark in order to protect and control its use (or non use).

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