These days, most annual reports are little more than a letter from the CEO and a page or two of highlights wrapped around the 10-K. No context to help explain good or bad performance, no details or proof points about long-term vision, and certainly no effort to help an average shareholder understand the management discussion and analysis (MD&A) section. Institutional investors have the luxury of listening to a CEO firsthand and asking questions in analyst meetings and in one-on-one calls. But it’s almost impossible for individual investors to get the whole picture.

While few things are more important to sales than a strong, distinctive, respected brand, many mid-market CEOs place brand building on the back burner. This is probably because of the cost and the fact that value of brand building is hard to quantify. But it doesn’t have to be if the work is done right.

Right now, every business has felt or continues to feel it. Spending is down. Skepticism among consumers, employees, and shareholders is high. Marketers are unsure how to best leverage the limited resources they have, but they recognize times of uncertainty are opportunities to increase market- and mind-share.

As we’re all aware, the digital age has given us the ability to reach an enormous audience quickly and more frequently. Through RSS feeds, Twitter, and the older standbys of e-mail and Web sites, a world’s worth of consumers has become a viable, and fairly instantaneous, target. But while these digital devices have made it far easier to communicate, they fail in one critical respect.