In a report on its survey of 145 executives around the world, the Economist's Intelligence Unit reported that "cultural differences between countries, the intangible nature of services and the fragmentation of marketing channels, all exacerbated by acquisition strategies that bring with them disparate brands and company cultures, are all acting to make brand management more challenging than ever." This SDL-funded survey of corporate executives about their globalization initiatives and problems was originally proposed to SDL by Common Sense Advisory.

• Brand is recognized as a valuable asset. 90% of companies surveyed do business internationally. 42% of them derive more than 40% of their annual revenue from markets outside their headquarters country. 81% rated their corporate brand as a critical asset, ahead of every other category but human capital and established customer base.
• Companies are globalizing their brands. Most firms surveyed already manage some brand presence in North America and Western Europe. Nearly every responding company plans to expand its business presence into developing markets. 49% said that it's getting harder to achieve brand consistency as they enter new countries.
• Companies are centralizing brand management. Survey respondents said that they are working to globalize their brands and to provide customers with a consistent brand experience regardless of country. To achieve this consistency, 60% manage their brands centrally. Many companies have chosen to take a consensus approach -- getting groups to buy into a branding approach -- rather than rely on the "command and control" or "brand police" model. We would have liked to see some more detail on this fundamental governance issue.
  
  
  
• Consistency is hard to achieve. Companies rarely achieve a consistently good brand experience across every mix of customer touchpoints -- just 33% think that their company maintains a consistent brand across their sales collateral, websites, and brick-and-mortar outlets.

To its credit, the Economist doesn't reference SDL's branded catchphrase -- global information management
until page 14 of this 20-page report: "Similarly, technology helps firms entering new markets. A range of software applications are assisting brand managers in ensuring that everything from advertising posters to customer-focused websites communicate corporate and product messaging correctly and consistently in the local language, especially as increasing amounts of material are generated electronically. Technology manages this global information through its life cycle from creation in one language to publication in many different languages, using the Internet to facilitate the consensus approach without losing control."

Given the report's funding, that technology would no doubt be SDL's, but, apart from the note about SDL sponsorship on the cover, introduction, and back page, SDL has kept its hand out of the document. Thankfully that restraint will allow the Economist's research to be cited by other language service companies, technology providers, and most importantly, by individuals trying to sell globalization up the corporate hierarchy.