Brands are potent, valuable and rare. Successful brands drive consumer loyalty, creating long-term economic benefits and confirming with the definition of an asset. However, as late as the 1980s accountancy was unable to accommodate these assets. In 1984 News Group, the Australian flagship company of Rupert Murdoch's worldwide publishing empire decided to take pre-emptive action to correct this accounting anomaly and included a valuation for ‘publishing titles’ in its balance sheet. News Corporation did this because, being an acquisitive company, it had to find a way adjust its acquired "goodwill". Following the accounting standards of the day - deduct acquired goodwill from shareholder equity - would have ravaged the corporation's balance sheet. Thus, News Group reduced the acquired goodwill by treating the brands as acquired assets. Following the lead of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the British Bakeries and foods comp...
