BRANDING BY THE NUMBERS: PROFITBRAND OFFERS A METRICS-BASED APPROACHED TOWARD BRANDING PROFITABILITY

"A superb job' says Kottler; 'the first truly global brand and branding book,' says Schultz

Spurred by CEO and CFO demand for greater accountability, marketing executives are moving toward metrics-based branding that can conclusively demonstrate branding's impact on the bottom line. ProfitBrand: Increasing the Profitability, Accountability and Sustainability of Brands, a new book by Nick Wreden, provides tools, formulas and techniques to ensure that branding investments pay off.

"ProfitBrand does a superb job in showing how companies can gain by tracking individual customers' profitability, and not simply basing their strategies on aggregate measures such as sales and market share," says Philip Kotler, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

ProfitBrand defines branding as "a long-term profitable bond between an offering and its customers based on economic, experiential or emotional value that is measured by customer profitability." Using examples from large and small companies worldwide, the book explores how to establish, grow and sustain that profitable bond based on the tenet that all customers are not created equal. Not only do 20 per cent of customers generate 80 per cent of profits, but about 15 per cent of customers are actually unprofitable.

"Most branding books concentrate on spending money with more advertising, public relations or promotion. By contrast, ProfitBrand is focused on how brands can make firms more profitable," says Wreden. "It is no longer enough to say that branding is a strategic imperative. Now branding must justify in measurable economic terms the resources that it requires."

To determine relative customer profitability, ProfitBrand provides specific formulas that range from easy-to-calculate RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value) to advanced calculations that can require ABC (activity-based costing). Because existing customers are more profitable than new ones, ProfitBrand provides an extensive discussion of retention branding, including the ability to do business on customer terms, loyalty programs and customer winback/recovery initiatives.

"Brands work any and everywhere, but, not necessarily in the same way. Nick Wreden has written the first truly 'global brand and branding book'. Examples abound and principles are practical and usable in any economy and by any level of management," says Don E. Schultz, professor emeritus of integrated marketing communications at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

ProfitBrand also demonstrates specific steps to increase customer profitability through brand penetration and other tactics. Brand penetration, incorporating customer, account and product penetration, involves getting more business from more profitable customers. Customer planning, which matches sales and other resources to current or expected profitability, is also discussed.

"ProfitBrand adeptly updates his well-reasoned approach to making what might be seen as a soft skill into a hard science. Marketers everywhere can learn from Wreden's outline of how to calculate customer equity, P&L, and value -- new, necessary measurements as the world of work enters the 'demand economy,'" says Heath Row, editorial and community director of Fast Company magazine.

ProfitBrand will be published in the UK in July, in the US in September, and in Asia in the Autumn.

Nick Wreden, MA, MS, is the author of FusionBranding: How to Forge Your Brand for the Future, which detailed new branding imperatives as the world moves from the mass economy into the customer economy. He has more than 20 years experience in branding for top technology and other firms. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Harvard Business School Press, Brand News, InformationWeek and others. His branding commentaries have been reprinted worldwide. He has served as an adjunct professor in operations management in the graduate program at Mercer University. Wreden is currently based in Asia, helping OEM and other Asian companies establish worldwide brands.

Kogan Page is Europe's largest independent business publisher and has had a significant international presence for more than 30 years, publishing over 300 new titles a year with an extensive back catalogue. Its respected lists provide a wide range of business and educational titles at affordable prices and many of our books have a truly international readership, selling throughout the world both in English and in foreign language editions.

"And another branding myth bites the dust"

Popular FusionBrand show on branding essentials now available on free DVD

KUALA LUMPUR (February 28, 2005) — Need to learn the essentials of branding success in less than an hour?

A new DVD from FusionBrand, Southeast Asia's leading results-proven brand consultancy, provides short, illustrative lessons in successful branding. The DVD is based on 13 video segments that were featured on "Money Tree," the business-oriented program that aired on Malaysia's TV1 network from December 2004 to March 2005.

The show, entitled "Brand Wise," teaches the essentials of branding by examining common branding myths that actually hurt companies seeking to brand. These branding myths include using awards-driven advertising agencies, believing that advertising and logos produce a brand and seeking to influence journalists with gifts and promotions. In humourous, 3-4 minute segments, FusionBrand co-founders Marcus Osborne and Nick Wreden illustrate why these myths don't work and then illustrate the true essentials of branding success. For example, customer-focused Web pages with current, relevant content are much better at driving traffic and sales than Flash and other graphical distractions.

Each show was highlighted by the trademark close: "And another branding myth bites the dust!"

In addition to debunking counter-productive branding myths, Osborne and Wreden also discussed best practices in branding. These included public relations, advertising and customer communications. A frequent theme was "the organization is the brand," resulting from the fact that customer-oriented sales, service and support is critical to building brands today. One of the most popular segments discussed how countries such as Malaysia could successfully brand themselves.

"The show both succinctly and humorously illustrates the principles of effective branding today," says Osborne, co-managing director. "Companies that put these principles into action will have successful, profitable brands."

Copies of the DVD are available free by contacting FusionBrand. To get a copy, send an email to orders@fusionbrand.com, with your name, title, organization, mailing address and telephone number.

FusionBrand Sdn Bhd, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is Asia's leading agency focused on the profitability, accountability and sustainability of brands. It has a proven track record in helping companies use research and measurement to build profitable brands based on finding and keeping the best customers.

For more information, contact: FusionBrand Sdn Bhd, 208 Block D, Phileo Damansara One, Jalan Damansara, 46350 Petaling Jaya, MALAYSIA. 7954-2075.
www.fusionbrand.com

Comprehensive brand audit reveals organizational insights to substantially improve brand

Knowledge of strengths and weaknesses lays out road map to increased profitability

KUALA LUMPUR (January 15, 2005) — An internal and external brand audit conducted by FusionBrand for a quasi-government organization uncovered existing branding weaknesses and outlined the most effective path toward a strong brand in the future.

A brand audit essentially provides a snapshot of where a brand audit is today and where is must go tomorrow. An internal brand audit results from in-depth conversations with personnel from all corporate levels while an external brand audit incorporates the attitudes and perceptions of such stakeholders as current and past customers, media, government, industry associations, channel partners and others.

Some unexpected organizational insights from the internal brand audit included:

· Extensive internal pride about past successes, but worry and concern about a future direction.

· Doubts about the organization's ability to maintain its leading edge in customer solutions

· Belief in the organization's strong customer service and support, but worries about increasing bureaucratization.

· A demand for new metrics for measuring performance.

The external brand audit, based on about 40 discussions and interviews, echoed some of the same concerns, indicating that the organization had a close relationship with its customers. The primary finding was a fear that the organization was losing the passion and drive that had driven it to success in the past. Its role was growing increasingly murky; few stakeholders could identify a USP (unique sales proposition) that could differentiate it from competitors. There was also concern over its ability to execute in the future, given some past high-profile failures.

"Too many companies attempt to brand without doing the necessary work to both identify their strengths and weaknesses and understand what customers are looking for. Such research is fundamental to establishing a profitable brand because of the insights it can provide," says Nick Wreden, co-managing director of FusionBrand. "The brand audits provide a roadmap for improvements and a benchmark for measuring future brand performance."

Based on its strong interviewing skills and branding knowledge, FusionBrand accurately determines where a brand is today and, more importantly, where it needs to go tomorrow. By soliciting anecdotes, word-of-mouth and personal stories, its personnel are skilled at uncovering the reasons behind perceptions and attitude. The reasons provide the basis for taking the most cost-effective steps toward unifying organizations, providing the best value propositions for customers and determining competitive weaknesses.

FusionBrand Sdn Bhd, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is Asia's leading agency focused on the profitability, accountability and sustainability of brands. It has a proven track record in helping companies use research and measurement to build profitable brands based on finding and keeping the best customers.

For more information on how FusionBrand can provide strategic insights through internal and external brand audits, contact: FusionBrand Sdn Bhd, 208 Block D, Phileo Damansara One, Jalan Damansara, 46350 Petaling Jaya, MALAYSIA. 7954-2075.
www.fusionbrand.com

International branding expert joins Malaysian brand consultancy

Nick Wreden, global branding author, speaker and consultant, teams up with local experts to focus on acquisition and retention branding for regional firms

KUALA LUMPUR — Nick Wreden, author of FusionBranding: How to Forge Your Brand for the Future, has opened a brand consultancy in Malaysia called FusionBrand Sdn Bhd.

"With more than 23,000 new household products launched last year and
consumers bombarded with up to 5,000 messages a day, it is more critical than ever for companies to brand," says Wreden. "Malaysian companies are responding to government incentives, AFTA and the OEM-to-OBM movement by beginning to become bigger players on the world stage. It is really exciting to be involved at this stage and be a part of the growing ability of Malaysian products to compete with world-class brands like Haier, Samsung, Intel and Virgin."

Wreden has already conducted a daylong seminar for MATRADE in Kuala Lumpur entitled "Cost-Effective Branding for Global Markets: An Action Plan for Success." More than 350 people from approximately 200 companies attended the seminar.

During other visits to Malaysia, Wreden conducted seminars on "Branding in the AFTA Economy: Leading-edge Strategies for Building Cost-Effective Brands that Customers Embrace." FusionBrand is also scheduled to conduct a branding workshop for FAMA (Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority) in December.

Nick is the author of FusionBranding: How to Forge Your Brand for the Future, which was called a "best new business book of 2002." The sequel, entitled FusionBranding: How CEOs and CFOs Can Brand for Profitability, Sustainability and Accountability, will be published by Kogan Page in spring 2005. He has also begun preliminary work on his third book, which will be about Asian brands.

FusionBrand Sdn Bhd will provide branding strategy and execution based on the principles incorporated in the company's tagline: "Find. Keep. Measure. Profit." In other words, effective brands are based on finding the right customers, improving retention and, most important, increasing profitability.

"Successful brands depend on three interdependent elements - profitability, relationships and execution. Without profitability, ultimately there is no brand. Relationships ensure brand sustainability and represent the only competitive advantage that cannot be copied. And measurement and accountability enable brand promises made to be brand promises kept," says Wreden.

Other FusionBrand Sdn Bhd directors include Rafidah Adenan and Marcus Osborne. Rafidah is a bumiputra entrepreneur with a master's degree in marketing from the University of Surrey, UK. Marcus is a marketing strategist with more than 20 years experience in sales and marketing in Europe, Middle East and Asia.

Wreden has more than 20 years experience in marketing and branding, with special expertise in technology. Clients have included Cisco, IBM, BellSouth, Hitachi and numerous other start-up and multinational firms.
International speaking and other engagements include Canada, China, Turkey and Norway.

He has been extensively published in numerous business, branding and
technology publications, including Harvard Business Press, BrandNews, Brand Equity, InformationWeek and Network World, and has been interviewed on Branding by Bloomberg, USA Today, The Edge and numerous other publications worldwide. He was an adjunct professor in the graduate program at Mercer University. Currently, he is a columnist for ComputerWorld on business and technology issues.

FusionBrand Sdn Bhd will merge its local knowledge and clients with Nick's international expertise. Unlike many other branding firms, FusionBrand Sdn Bhd does not offer 'one-size-fits-all' brand planning and execution. Instead, FusionBrand Sdn Bhd offers capabilities that are backed by research and tailored to each company's goals, markets and resources. Core principles are based on research, operational excellence, accountability and retention. Whether business-to-business, or business-to-consumer, companies can no longer afford unfocused, expensive customer acquisition strategies based on advertising and PR; building brands now requires a consistent ability to establish, maintain and grow relationships with profitable customers.

Key elements of such a strategy include data collection and analysis,
pinpoint targeting and segmentation, tracking and measurement, effective customer, dealer and employee communications, and continuous operational improvement. Also vital are traditional sales, advertising, public relations and other marketing tactics.

For more information, FusionBrand Sdn Bhd, 208 Block D, Phileo Damansara One, Jalan Damansara, 46350, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Tel: 03 7954 2076
Email: info@fusionbrand.com