Why CFOs and deal teams need to take a much closer look at brand strength when assessing pricing, growth and M&A.
Revenue, EBITDA, cash flows and synergies are key metrics in determining a company’s value. Yet one of the strongest predictors of future business performance often receives far too little attention: brand strength.
That strength is far less intangible than many assume, says Edgar Molenaars, Founder and Partner at Anew, Collective of Strategy Teams, and lecturer at Nyenrode Business University. A thorough brand equity analysis reveals which associations a brand evokes, how relevant and distinctive those associations are, and the extent to which customers are willing to pay a premium for them.
As a result, brand strength is directly linked to pricing power, growth and enterprise value. In the executive masterclass Making Pricing Power Happen, developed in close partnership with Alex van Groningen, CFO.nl, Adformatie.nl and the Institute for Real Growth, Molenaars explains why CFOs, CMOs and deal teams can no longer afford to treat brand as a soft marketing variable.
Edgar Molenaars, Founder and Partner at Anew, Collective of Strategy Teams
“A strong brand creates intangible value that translates into tangible money.”
– Edgar Molenaars, Founder and Partner at Anew, Collective of Strategy Teams
Brand as a decision-making shortcut
In many boardrooms, brand strength is still viewed primarily as a marketing, communications or positioning issue. As a result, CFOs, investors and deal teams risk overlooking one of the most important predictors of growth, pricing power and enterprise value.
Molenaars does see a shift taking place. In M&A transactions, brand is increasingly being recognized as a strategic asset. Consumer-facing businesses have long understood that customers ultimately choose a brand, not merely a functional product or company.
Even so, he believes brand strength is still too often assessed superficially or without sufficient expertise during acquisitions. One of the main reasons is the widespread perception that brands are difficult to measure.
“I say perception, because a brand is absolutely measurable. A thorough brand equity analysis objectively maps how strongly a brand’s associations are embedded in customers’ minds. For me, that is the foundation of everything.”
Molenaars defines a brand in the simplest possible way: as a decision-making shortcut. A brand is a collection of beliefs stored in customers’ minds that ultimately influence their purchasing decisions.
“These beliefs are the result of years of influence through both marketing and actual product and brand experiences. Strong brands are built through strategically orchestrated brand associations. And the strength of those associations can be measured objectively through a robust brand equity analysis.”
The stronger a brand, the more relevant and distinctive those associations become, allowing the company to command and sustain higher prices.
“That, to me, is the essence of pricing power.”
“There is a strong correlation between brand strength and a company’s financial performance.”
Why strong brands create more value
To illustrate how brand value translates into financial value, Molenaars often uses a simple everyday example. His message is straightforward: beliefs drive pricing. A 450-gram package of Jumbo baby potatoes sells for €1.39. A similarly sized package of CêlaVíta Oma’s Opbakaardappeltjes costs €2.19. Both products come from exactly the same factory.
“Branding and the associations attached to it create a price difference of 57 percent, or what I call additional pricing power. That is what a strong brand does. It adds intangible value that translates directly into tangible money.”
The same principle applies to acquisitions. “In M&A, brand strength is a major determinant of a company’s value. The stronger the brand, the better its ability to establish and maintain profitable pricing. When relevant and differentiating brand associations are deeply embedded, and brand awareness is strong, a company is able to attract large groups of customers. That makes brand strength an important predictor of future growth.”
Molenaars leaves little room for doubt. “There is, to put it mildly, a strong correlation between brand strength and a company’s financial performance. CFOs, investors and deal teams should therefore ensure that brand strength is thoroughly assessed, because it is a key predictor of business performance and future growth.”
The missing analysis in M&A
An acquisition is not only about what a company earns today. It is equally about its future ability to attract customers, maintain pricing and generate sustainable growth. According to Molenaars, the decisive factor is not marketing itself, but the quality of the underlying analysis.
“In my view, conducting a thorough brand equity analysis should be an absolute requirement in every M&A process. In my definition, brand value is first and foremost the value that exists in customers’ minds. That value ultimately determines pricing power, the ability to attract more customers and, therefore, how realistic future growth expectations really are.”
He emphasizes that brand value ultimately rests on two pillars: the strength of brand associations and brand awareness.
Brand strength as a strategic management tool
While a brand equity analysis remains essential, Molenaars believes a company’s marketing plan already provides an important indication of brand strength.
“A marketing plan reveals a great deal about how strategically marketing is managed within an organization. The quality of the plan, the depth of its underlying analysis, the allocation of the marketing budget and the way those investments are distributed across brand building and marketing execution all provide valuable insight into the likely strength of the brand.”
For CFOs, this leads to a clear responsibility. “They should ask their CMO to establish strategic brand monitoring. That is, in my opinion, the single most important question a CFO should ask. But CFOs also need to understand these concepts themselves.”
Three questions should guide that discussion:
1. How is brand salience evolving?
Consider awareness, consideration and usage.
2. How is the brand’s relevance evolving?
To what extent do the brand’s associations align with customers’ needs, preferences and emotional affinity?
3. How distinctive is the brand?
How different are its associations compared to competing brands, and to what extent does it lead the category?
Frameworks such as Kantar’s BrandZ can provide valuable guidance, although other methodologies are available as well.
“Marketing should be the engine of growth, but too often it has become the executor or manager of communications.”
Reclaiming marketing’s strategic role
The challenge does not lie with finance alone. According to Molenaars, marketing leaders also need to take a critical look at their own profession. Over the past decades, marketing has gradually lost its strategic position within many organizations. “Marketing should be the engine of growth. Unfortunately, it has too often become the executor or manager of communications.”
In many companies, marketing has effectively been reduced to the ‘Promotion’ P of the traditional marketing mix. “The marketing function focuses primarily on campaigns and is no longer responsible for product strategy, pricing strategy or distribution strategy, with promotion becoming merely the result of those other strategic choices.”
Marketing itself must reclaim that strategic role. “That means today’s CMO must also be a strategic marketer with a clear focus on business results. In my view, that is the profession’s greatest challenge.”
It is a topic Molenaars has worked on for many years, including as a lecturer in the Marketing Leadership Program at Nyenrode Business University and Adformatie.
Building sustainable growth together
For Molenaars, marketing’s loss of strategic influence remains a recurring frustration. Not because boards fail to understand marketing, but because many marketers themselves have drifted away from the discipline’s core purpose.
“Many marketers, although fortunately not all, seem primarily focused on agencies, the next campaign and reporting campaign metrics. Too few know how to provide strategic direction for sustainable business growth.”
He believes the responsibility lies first and foremost with the marketing profession itself. “I see it happening far too often. At the same time, I try to help change it by supporting CMOs in reclaiming marketing’s strategic importance, while also helping boards organize their marketing function in a truly strategic way.”
One organization that demonstrates how finance and marketing can strengthen each other is Eneco. During the Making Pricing Power Happen masterclass, Jaap van den Bosch, Finance Director, and Brigitte Vos, Head of Strategic Marketing, will share how both disciplines work together to strengthen pricing, brand value and long-term value creation.
Deep Dive: Making Pricing Power Happen
Why do the strongest companies win on pricing, not discounts? In an increasingly volatile economy, sustainable pricing power has become one of the clearest indicators of strategic resilience, margin protection and long-term enterprise value.
The one-day executive masterclass Making Pricing Power Happen brings together senior finance and marketing leaders to address one of today’s most important boardroom challenges. Led by Chris Burggraeve, participants explore how brand equity, customer value, pricing power, margins and valuation are connected, and why stronger collaboration between finance and marketing is essential to profitable growth.
Participants will learn why strong brands outperform during inflationary periods, how pricing power influences investor confidence and M&A discussions, and how to translate brand strength into financial language that resonates with CEOs and boards.
Seats are limited. Reserve your place early.
Join senior finance and marketing leaders in Amsterdam on Friday, 30 October 2026, and discover how Pricing Power can become a shared strategic language for finance and marketing.
Explore the program | Secure your seat
Meet the expert
Edgar Molenaars is Founder and Partner at Anew, Collective of Strategy Teams. He advises organizations on marketing strategy, marketing operating models, branding, customer experience and growth strategy.
For more than 25 years, Molenaars held senior leadership positions within leading marketing and advertising agencies. In 2019, he joined KPMG as Partner Customer & Brand Strategy, where he advised organizations on transformations focused on unlocking untapped potential in branding, customer experience, marketing and growth.
He also developed his own research methodology for objectively measuring brand equity and applying those insights to brand portfolio decisions, pricing power, brand strategy and portfolio rationalization. In addition, Molenaars lectures in the Marketing Leadership Program at Nyenrode Business University.
Learn more about his expertise and the program.
The executive masterclass Making Pricing Power Happen is developed with global marketing-finance expert Chris Burggraeve, in close partnership with Alex van Groningen, CFO.nl, Adformatie.nl, and the Institute for Real Growth. Participation includes a ticket to the Leadership in Finance Summit 2026. More information is available through our business partner Alex van Groningen, part of Sijthoff.
