The document discusses the growing importance and value of intangible assets in the global economy. Some key points: - Intangible assets like brands, intellectual property, and reputation account for over $20 trillion in value globally but cannot be seen or touched. - Intangible value is created through things like shared knowledge and assumptions between people rather than just the intrinsic qualities of an object. - Companies use tangible products, stories, and symbols to signal expertise and create intangible value around their brands. - In the future, most economic activity and value creation will be based increasingly on intangible resources like knowledge, relationships, and culture rather than physical goods.

4. Bords de la Seine a Argenteuil (Monet)

7. Why? How much?
The intangible:
… is anything you can’t touch, see, taste, hear or smell
… only exists inside your head
… but still creates value

8. • Services dominate the transaction value
• Services are always intangible
• You can only value a service based on expectation
• Expectation is shaped by intangible claims and
knowledge

12. $24.5 billion
$15.9 billion
$11.9 billion
$7.7 billion
$6.5 billion
$5 billion
$3.1 billion

13. $1.3 trillion
Source: Forbes

14. $320 billion
Source: Nielsen Global AdView Pulse

16. • Intangible products make up a huge proportion of the global
economy
• They are essential to every company’s profitability
• A price must be put on them

17. •Type 1: Pure intangible – information only

18. $4 trillion

19. •Type 1: Pure intangible – information only
•Type 2: Intangible aspects of physical products

20. $5-7 trillion

21. •Type 1: Pure intangible – information only
•Type 2: Intangible aspects of physical products
•Type 3: Goods that are different but most of us
can’t tell

22. $4 trillion

23. Jackson Pollock

24. •Type 1: Pure intangible – information only
•Type 2: Intangible aspects of physical products
•Type 3: Goods that are different but most of us
can’t tell
•Type 4:Tangible goods which meet a need that is
intangible

25. $25 trillion

26. •Type 1: Pure intangible – information only
•Type 2: Intangible aspects of physical products
•Type 3: Goods that are different but most of us
can’t tell
•Type 4:Tangible goods which meet a need that is
intangible
•Type 5:Tangible goods and needs which arise
from a deeper intangible need

27. $20 trillion

28. 16
59
Trillions of $
Tangible
Intangible

30. • Shared knowledge among the wearer’s
friends and acquaintances
• An investment byValentino in creating
that knowledge
• The confidence of the wearer which arises
from that knowledge

31. Bords de la Seine a Argenteuil (Monet)

32. Expectation of resale value
Shared assumptions about
authenticity

34. Assumption of fairness…
…but what’s a reasonable price?

36. A story
Memories
Bragging rights

38. The world is complicated - how do customers
make sense of it?
Through stories.

40. Shared culture

41. Intangible value exists not in the
object, but in the common
assumptions of the world around it

43. Pairwise comparison
Anchoring
Limits on information processing
Priming and confirmation bias
1
2
3
4

44. The value of similar things
Other numbers we know
A limited subset of information
The language we use to think and talk
about it
1
2
3
4

45. An object contains certain objective facts
We interpret those facts in the light of
knowledge
This becomes the subjective nature of the
object
The object’s value now depends on our
background knowledge

47. • Limited editions
• Unique objects
• If something can’t be replaced
or obtained, there’s one less
“competitor” to hold down its
value

48. • We believe in novelty: a kind of
magic in the new
• Copies are one step behind
• The originator of a thing must
understand it better

49. • We like to know the background
to things
• We believe in causality
• The story stimulates a richer
interaction with the object

50. • We want to influence what others
think of us
• Objects trigger their interpretations
just like our own

51. • The object doesn’t only have
value to us – also to others
•We predict future experiences or
consequences

52. • Nike sneakers
• Partnership with KanyeWest
• Limited edition of 3000 pairs
• Retail price $275
• Subsequently auctioned for
$2750+
• Some pairs $90,000
Image: BornRich.com

53. • Consulting firm
• Expertise/IP is shared widely across
the firm
• But some people are more highly
valued

54. • The person who wrote the book
• The person who consulted for Bill Gates
• The person who’s been onTV
• The person they’ve heard of
• Symbols of expertise are more measurable
than actual expertise

55. • Got different people into different media
• Pro bono consulting for well-known charities/projects
• Identified different conversations their clients might
have…
• …and chose different ways to participate in those
conversations
• Created profile for multiple staff members, not just
senior ones

56. So why use tangible products to create intangible value?
• Credible signalling
• Salience
• Simplification
• Lack of self-control

57. The intangible
is ever more
important

58. • Everyone seeks
purpose, a narrative for
their life
• Their choices create
that purpose
• You can collaborate with
them to create it

59. • People connect through
language and symbols
• You can be that
connection
• You unlock new relations
between people, groups
and cultures

60. • Already, 75% of the
economy is services
• Half of that is symbolic
services
• It is growing inexorably
• In the future, everything
will be mediated through
the intangible

61. Start building itTODAY.