The Role of Brands in Value Creation

Blackstone now has an internal department with skills in the area of brand strategy and brand building. It came from our good friend Johnny Bauer, who put together a proposal based on his belief that brand could be a kind of an underutilized lever for value creation. So it was sort of an initiative that he pitched them on. There's universal understanding of the role of a brand within consumer categories,. Throughout Blackstone, everyone understands why you need a brand.