Introduction — An asset invisible on the balance sheet, decisive on the income statement

Ask an SME or mid-market executive for the list of their strategic assets: they will cite their customer portfolio, their know-how, their teams, sometimes their patents or their industrial plant. Rarely their brand. It does not appear on the balance sheet — except in the event of a sale, where it resurfaces abruptly in the goodwill, often for an amount that surprises its own owner.

This accounting invisibility has a direct managerial consequence: what is not recorded is not steered, what is not steered is not measured, and what is not measured ends up being treated as a communications expense rather than as a growth investment.

This cahier defends a simple thesis, drawing on the most recent work of the major international institutes — Kantar, BCG, Gartner, RepTrak — and on French field observation documented notably by Bpifrance Le Lab: the brand is a strategic asset in the full sense of the term. It produces measurable returns, it depreciates when neglected, it appreciates when steered — and, in 2026, it is becoming one of the last levers of differentiation that neither technology nor competitors can copy quickly.

The thesis holds for every company. But it has a particular bearing on French SMEs and mid-market companies, where the absence of a structured marketing function makes the executive the sole custodian — and often the sole steward — of this capital.