Category: News

  • Is it time to refresh your strategy?

    New York, NY (September 08, 2015) – In an earlier article I discussed when it was time to rebrand a company. In this article, I’ll focus on when it might be time to refresh your brand strategy.

    First thing is to remember a brand is much more than just a logo. It encompasses everything that contributes toward customer experience, including the culture you’re building and how you deliver your product or service. Your brand strategy is an essential business tool. If it is not helping you achieve your firm’s strategic goals, no matter how attached you are to your brand promise or your current campaigns, it may be time to take a fresh look at the strategy behind them.

    Here are five signs that it’s time to re-evaluate your brand strategy:

    1. Your brand scores are slipping. Akin to regularly servicing an automobile, you need to keep tabs on the health and quality of your brand. If you regularly research your brand’s relevance with key audiences and periodically fine tune your messaging, then you will get a lot more miles out of the brand than if you drive it off the showroom floor and never get it serviced. At a minimum, annual brand health surveys with external and internal audiences will keep you from suffering any major brand breakdowns. At best, you can solicit feedback in real-time from your customers, employees and key constituencies so you can respond quickly and efficiently to any contingency.

    2. The business strategy changes. Brand strategy always follows business strategy. Perhaps the leadership team has decided that doubling revenues by acquisition is the goal for the next five years. Or maybe an IPO is in the plans for the not-so-distant future. Or the opportunity has arisen to enter a new international market. As a critical tool for rationalizing your portfolio and building market appeal, your brand needs to align with, support and reflect your business strategy. Your brand strategy is the story that holds your business together, and it must be told clearly and consistently to have maximum positive impact.

    3. Competitive pressures have increased. Whether there are new entrants in your industry or a competitor has developed a groundbreaking technological advance, when the dynamics of your industry shift, you need to make sure you aren’t being left behind. “Clear, relevant, believable and distinct” is the mantra we use to keep us on track when developing a brand positioning. When market dynamics change, so can your ability to stand out from the crowd and be unique. If a “me too” provider pops up with a vociferous awareness campaign, you run the danger of becoming a referential brand: “Yeah, we’re just like X only we’ve been around longer.” You need to retool your messages to stand apart, even if it is as simple as being sure to include your years of expertise in your outreach.

    4. Your brand expression looks dated. Ideally your original brand strategy was both cutting edge and sustainable. But sometimes market tastes shift beneath you. Just look at all of the companies out there with the word “cyber” in their name, or, more recently, how many logos have all lowercase, san-serif, colorful fonts. Whether it’s an elegant refinement of your current logo or starting from scratch, your brand expression needs to match your cultural personality in tone and manner. You can’t credibly claim to be innovative if your logo is stuck in the 1980s.

    5. You want to signal change. Sometimes you just need an opportunity to tell a new story. It could be because you have a change in business strategy, or new leadership, or you have identified a sizable shift in your core audiences. Perhaps you have merged with another firm and together have more to offer than the sum of your two parts. A refreshed look and feel, a new tagline – even a new name – may be what you need to attract attention, build awareness and capture the market share you desire.

    Whatever the reason is for re-evaluating your brand strategy, whenever possible, existing brand equity should be retained. Always remember when you’re building your brand, whatever strategic and tactical plan you take on should be fact-based and built to achieve specific goals. Change should never be made simply for change’s sake.

    Original article at: Business Observer

  • Join Tenet at the 2015 Brand Strategy Innovation Summit in Los Angeles

    New York, NY (September 03, 2015) – Tenet is thrilled to be part of the 2015 Brand Innovation Summit taking place September 10-11 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. Sponsored by the Innovation Enterprise, it brings together more than 200 leaders in branding, marketing and design, and promises to spark fresh thinking for all those who take advantage of the opportunity.

    Come join our workshop Human Strategies. Human Brands, where you’ll develop new approaches to building more human-centric brand experiences that resonate, ensure and drive returns. Together, we will engage in strategies using personas, journey mapping and concept poster exercises to reveal the pain points oftentimes associated with air travel (as well as with many other brand experiences). We will demonstrate how similar pain points were used as the catalyst to create design principles – and identify the core functional and emotional benefits that were used to develop and launch a first-class brand experience for the new Long Beach Airport terminal.

    Register today to attend Tenet Partners’ Brand Strategy Innovation Workshop Human Strategies. Human Brands.

    When:

    Thursday, September 10, 2015, 2pm PST

    Where:

    The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Los Angeles

    About Tenet Partners

    Formed from the merger of Brandlogic and CoreBrand, Tenet Partners is a brand innovation and marketing consultancy that helps companies create brand value and unearth business opportunities by putting customers at the center of their business strategies.

  • Tenet Partners Reveals the Top 20 Most Powerful “Back-to-School” Retail Brands

    New York, NY (August 11, 2015) – With back-to-school spending heating up, Tenet Partners, a leading brand innovation and marketing firm, today revealed its ranking of the Top 20 Most Powerful “Back-to-School” Retail Brands. Barnes & Noble claims the top position, with Target and Walmart rounding out the Top 3 companies.

    The Top 20 Most Powerful “Back-to-School” Retail Brands are ranked by a unique, quantitative measure called BrandPower as measured through Tenet’s CoreBrand® Index. The CoreBrand Index, a landmark study conducted continuously since 1990, is based upon an annual U.S. survey of approximately ten thousand consumer opinion elites and business-decision makers. Tapping the CoreBrand Index, the BrandPower score is a weighted composite of two key metrics that contribute to a brand’s ability to drive long-term growth: Familiarity and Favorability. Familiarity measures awareness of the brand. Favorability is the perception of the brand (among those who are well aware of it), and is based upon three attributes that tie directly to future business performance: Overall Reputation, Perception of Management, and Investment Potential.

    Key Findings

    • *Barnes & Noble leads as the #1 Most Powerful “Back-to-School” Retail Brand. * With a BrandPower score of 66.6, both Barnes & Noble’s Familiarity (degree of awareness) and Favorability scores (positive perception) remained constant year-over-year. Examining the three dimensions that contribute to Favorability – the company’s Perception of Management score experienced the highest gain year-over-year, a strong indicator that investors and business-decision makers are confident in leadership’s ability to drive company success and future growth. Demonstrating its ability to remain agile in a changing retail environment, the company recently spun-off its college bookstore unit from its retail and Nook businesses. As Barnes and Noble Education, the new company is poised to expand the number of bookstore locations across college campuses. It also has plans to further its digital presence through its e-textbook app, Yuzu, as well as through new products.

    • *Big-box retailers dominate the Top 20 ranking with a total of eight brands hailing from the category. * This year’s big box retail brands include: Target (#2), Walmart (#3), Bed Bath & Beyond (#4), Kohl’s (#7), IKEA (#8), Best Buy (#9), Sam’s Club (#14) and Big Lots (#15). Walmart, IKEA, Best Buy, and Big Lots demonstrated particularly strong improvements, gaining year-over-year on both dimensions of BrandPower (Familiarity and Favorability).

      Despite the threat of online shopping taking over physical stores, the BrandPower of big-box retailers has been on the rise. Average Familiarity and Favorability has steadily increased year-over-year since 2011.

      A collective focus on digital and omnichannel innovation have allowed these traditional big box stores to reimagine their customers’ path to purchase. By offering new conveniences and incentives to shop both in-store and online, they have been able to remain competitive, while also alluring a key demographic: Millennials. Walmart (#3) has acquired more than a dozen technology companies in the past year, many of which have contributed to major improvements and changes to its e-commerce properties. According to the company’s 2015 annual report, e-commerce sales rose faster than the market globally last year at approximately 22 percent. In addition, the company also launched an online price-matching service last year. To gear up for back-to-school, the company took online prices to all-time low, and is offering free shipping to student dormitories on all orders over $35.

    • *E-commerce giant Amazon (#5) demonstrates the strongest brand momentum *, improving on both Familiarity and Favorability year-over-year. Across the Top 20, the company earned the highest Favorability score (71.3, just edging out Barnes & Noble’s 71.2). Across the three dimensions of Favorability, Amazon witnessed notable gains across each attribute: Overall Reputation, Perception of Management and Investment Potential. While online retailing currently accounts for only 7% of U.S. retail sales, Amazon continues to hold an enviable position in the retail sector. Last quarter, the company made a $92 million profit and for the first time in its 30-year history, garnered a market value that exceeded Walmart. As further evidence of its rapid growth, analysts at the Cowen securities firm recently predicted that Amazon would overtake Macy’s as the No.1 U.S. apparel retailer within two years. The company was also a ‘top-riser’ on Tenet’s 2015 Top 100 Most Powerful Brands report released in May. The company jumped 20 spots to enter at #65 among the 100 most powerful brands in the U.S.

    • Office supply stores, including Staples (#11), Office Depot (#16), and OfficeMax grapple with increased competition from other big-box stores and e-retailer giants. Entering the Top 20 at #11 with a BrandPower of 52.1, Staples is the uncontested category leader. However, over the last few years, Staples has struggled to maintain its competitive advantage. In March 2014, the company announced it would close 225 underperforming stores in North America by 2015. More recently, it announced plans to acquire Office Depot for $6.3 billion, a move which analysts estimate would likely result in additional store closings; noting that about half of Staples stores are within five miles of an Office Depot store, bringing into question the quantity and location of many their outposts.

    • Apparel brands, including Old Navy (#6), Abercrombie & Fitch (#18), Aéropostale (#19) and Urban Outfitters (#20) struggle to remain relevant; representing some of the lowest ranked companies. While once some of the most popular clothing brands among teen shoppers, these companies have seen sales unravel in recent years. In terms of their respective BrandPower scores, Abercrombie & Fitch and Aéropostale experienced the sharpest declines across each dimension of Favorability. Contributing to its decline in Overall Reputation, Abercrombie & Fitch made headlines for a number of reasons over the past few years. From being accused of purposefully excluding plus-sized customers, to (now ex-CEO) Mike Jeffries’ public statements that he wants only “thin and beautiful” people to shop in his stores, to facing a discrimination lawsuit where it was accused of turning down a Muslim job applicant because she wore a hijab, these series of events have left the brand’s future in jeopardy, with investors and customers questioning the company’s integrity and relevancy in today’s marketplace.

    • Specialty brand, LensCrafters, enters the Top 20 at #10. With a BrandPower of 52.9, the international eyewear retailer experienced significant gains on Familiarity over the past few years as well as on Overall Reputation and Perception of Management. A division of Luxottica Group, the company reported an increase in store sales in 2014, up 1.8%. A key ingredient of the company’s success has been its continued focus on the in-store experience. In 2012, the company launched ‘myLook’ mirror, a custom-built digital mirror installation. Bringing together facial recognition technology and multiple digital cameras, it allows customers to see digital photos of themselves when trying on different frames. Using a touch screen, the customer can select among different looks and upload and share the photos via email, Facebook, and Twitter. In time for back-to-school season, the company is also educating customers of the importance of annual eye exams. With comprehensive vision care information on its website and through its partnership with OneSight, the company provides free eye exams and prescription glasses to people in need, illustrating its corporate commitment and responsiveness to customers’ needs as well as its role as a good corporate citizen.

    Commenting on the Top 20 Most Powerful “Back-to-School” Retail Brands, Steve Makadok, Partner of Tenet’s CoreBrand Analytics practice, said: “While big box retailers demonstrate the biggest gains on BrandPower, the key to their staying power will be continued innovations in digital and the omnichannel brand experience. Brands falling out of favor with consumers and investors are struggling to keep pace with the change in retail. These brands would benefit from a renewed focus in three key areas: customer experience, product and brand innovation, as well as improvements across channels, including digital and mobile.”

    The Top 20 Most Powerful “Back-to-School” Retail Brands

    Indicates a significantly higher Familiarity/Favorability vs. 2014

    Indicates a significantly lower Familiarity/Favorability vs. 2014

    Indicates an insignificant change of only +/- .5 or less year-over-year

    Methodology

    A company’s BrandPower score is determined by a survey of approximately ten thousand influential people on two key brand metrics: Familiarity and Favorability. This carefully screened audience, representing opinion elites/business-decision makers at the top 20 percent of American corporations are polled on the following:

    Familiarity – Respondents are considered to be familiar with a brand if they state that they know more than just the company name. Familiarity scores can range from 0 to 100.

    Favorability – Respondents familiar with a corporation are then asked about three dimensions that together, form a Favorability score, also on a scale of 0 to 100.

    • Overall Reputation – Do you have a favorable impression of the corporate brand?
    • Perception of Management – What is your perception of the company’s management? How would you assess the way senior leadership leads the enterprise and engages stakeholders? Does leadership have future-forward outlook on the market in which it operates, as well as on the competition?
    • Investment Potential – Would you invest in this company?

    BrandPower is calculated as a function of Familiarity and Favorability, enabling easy comparison among competitors, against industry averages and against world-class brands.

    About this ranking

    The starting point for determining the Top 20 Most Powerful ‘Back-to-School’ Retail Brands is the CoreBrand® Index (CBI) – a quantitative database based on a continuous benchmark tracking survey of nearly 1,000 companies across 50 industries. The study has been in the field continuously since 1990.

    About Tenet Partners

    Formed from the merger of Brandlogic and CoreBrand, Tenet Partners is a brand innovation and marketing consultancy that helps companies create brand value and unearth business opportunities by putting customers at the center of their business strategies.

    For more information

    Jessica McHie
    Photo of Jessica McHie Partner, Business Development
    Business Development and Marketing
    Tenet Partners
    11 West 42nd Street
    Penthouse Floors 31/32
    New York, NY 10036 US
    +1 212 329-3166

  • Merger Mania Heats Up

    August 05, 2015 – The banking crisis put a major damper on merger and acquisition activity. But cheap debt, plenty of cash in the corporate coffers and a rising stock market are all fueling a pickup in mergers. Some on Wall Street believe this will be the biggest year ever for M&A.

    Does this mean you should be considering the acquisition of another company, or is it time to put your own firm on the block? Either way, if you move forward with a merger it will have a major impact your brand.

    Brands are often the last thing CEOs consider when they merge their company. Unfortunately, many executives learn how important the brand is after they close the deal and start the process of putting the operations together.

    Corporate mergers can often destroy corporate reputations that took years to build. When mergers fail to live up to expectations, everyone suffers — shareholders of course, but also employees, customers, vendors and everyone associated with the merged companies. That is a key reason why careful consideration should be given to the anticipated brand strategy before any merger is concluded.

    Brand strategy from an M&A perspective:

    How will the merger impact your employees?
    Mergers typically create confusion, conflict, fear, anger and uncertainty among employees. This leads to talent raiding, and often competitors are able to scoop up good people who are worried about their futures just when distracted executives need them the most.

    How will the companies be integrated?
    The integrations process, or lack thereof, is often blamed for merger failures. A thoughtful vision, values and mission statement for the newly combined entity will go a long way to set the tone for the merger. This is something that can be done as part of the merger process rather than waiting for the ink to dry.

    What will the combined companies be called?
    Harried executives often consider the name of the company as an afterthought, or with so much emotion that it evades logical thinking. The corporate brand is an important asset and naming should be put on the negotiation table early in the merger process. An outside brand-consulting firm with brand valuation capabilities can come up with alternative scenarios with the best naming recommendations and the potential value of each. My firm was consulted when SBC acquired AT&T. Management naturally wanted SBC to be the new corporate name, but we concluded it would take billions of media dollars to elevate the SBC brand to the size and stature of the AT&T brand. CEO Ed Whitacre wisely chose the AT&T name for the combined entity.

    Exploit the initial interest in the merger.
    When you are ready to announce the merger, make sure you are ready to exploit the initial interest in the newly formed company. There will never be a better chance to tell your story than in the initial 30 days — after that the merger is old news. Have your senior spokespeople trained on the media. Have your ad campaign and communications materials ready for release. Talk to the press. Be ready to announce to your investors. Make the most of your announcement.

    Don’t forget both sides of the acquisition.
    The time to set a budget for announcing and integrating the newly merged entities is before the deal is concluded. This aspect of brand building is cost effective for protecting existing brand equity and building the merged brand. Unfortunately, budgets are usually set after the deal is concluded. At that point all the pressure is on cutting costs. Damage to the brand can be catastrophic if it is not properly funded immediately following a merger.

    Merge the cultures.
    You are not only merging the businesses but the cultures as well. Often this is the most difficult aspect of a merger. Communicate with consistency, communicate often and communicate like you mean it. Tell your employees what kind of culture you are tying to build and how you expect them to behave. Get your employees involved in thinking about the new company with well-crafted purposeful brand workshops designed to create internal buy-in. Keeping your employees well informed about the merger and what to expect will help rebuild trust.

    Communications is your best tool launching your merged brand.
    Spend more time and resources than you think will be required to make the merger convincing. Utilize every communications vehicle to create excitement. It will take time but communicating your new brand will pay big dividends.

    There are still plenty of global economic headwinds that could quickly chill M&A activity. If any of the global markets have a significant meltdown it will likely domino and quickly chill the heated M&A markets. But, if you are looking for a merger this could be the best opportunity in years to execute your plan.

    Original article at: Business Observer

  • What Makes an Enduring Brand?

    July 28, 2015 – There are many wonderful examples of marketing successes. Below, we examine five of the most enduring brands to see what lessons we can learn and put to use in our own businesses.

    Tiffany: The blue box. Perhaps no other box has created more excitement and delight than the iconic Tiffany blue box with the white ribbon. According to the Tiffany Co. website, Charles Lewis Tiffany mandated that the coveted boxes could only be acquired with a Tiffany purchase. As reported by the New York Sun in 1906, “Tiffany has one thing in stock that you cannot buy of him for as much money as you may offer, he will only give it to you. And that is one of his boxes.” The brand lesson is exclusive packaging tied to a powerful experience. Tiffany blue boxes epitomize Tiffany’s great heritage of elegance, exclusivity and flawless craftsmanship.

    The Coca-Cola Co.: The contoured-shaped bottle. The bottle is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. This proves a point that not all enduring brands are about packaging an expensive experience. As my associate, Russ Napolitano, said in a recent blog on the subject, “What foresight the marketers and packaging engineers and designers had in creating such a bottle and to have it patented no less.”

    Burberry: The classic check pattern. How does a coat lining become an enduring brand? This one is as interesting as it is puzzling. It is simply a fabric design — of a woven Scottish cashmere. When did it transcend from a coat lining to a design icon representing simple quality? First, it was distinctive and yet understated. As a trench coat lining it wasn’t highly visible, yet you always knew it was an original if you could get a glimpse of the lining. It has stayed consistent over time. Then, when it was applied to products such as scarves, umbrellas and purses it arrived as a standalone classic.

    Cadillac: Reinventing luxury while reintroducing quality. The Cadillac brand has been under pressure for decades by the highly engineered German luxury imports. With so many luxury cars sold in the United States, why couldn’t America make a luxury car worthy of competing on the global stage? In recent years it has. The Cadillac brand has made a comeback starting around 2000. It began with a recommitment to design, quality and performance. Today’s Cadillac is well-engineered and fun to drive. It is comfortable without being the flying sofa of less spirited decades.

    Harley-Davidson: A reinvented icon. The Harley-Davidson is more than a motorcycle, it’s part of a cultural experience. Left for dead as brand in the 1970s, the company was bought back from a holding company in 1981 by a group of diehard enthusiast investors who believed the brand could roar back to become one of America’s great companies again. The new management team reintroduced a retro design of earlier models while recommitting to high quality manufacturing. It worked, and customers returned.

    Today, Harley-Davidson maintains a consistently well-managed brand from the sound of its engine, to the logo, to the culture. The company enjoys a huge brand following, which it nurtures carefully through clubs, events and even museums. This perpetuates licensing opportunities and significant revenue.

    Were these brands originally developed to become enduring brands? Not always. Sometimes longevity itself is the reason they have become powerful: stick around long enough and you’ll have a following. The trick to harvesting the value of an enduring brand is careful management.

    Managing brands for endurance – Do’s and Don’ts

    • DO – Provide a consistent customer experience over time
    • DON’T – Be all things to all people – focus on the customer experience
    • DO – Respect and protect the heritage of your brand
    • DON’T – Be afraid to refresh and reinvigorate brands that have lost momentum
    • DO – Conduct research consistently among your customers
    • DON’T – Over license your brand – it is a quick way to kill exclusivity
    • DO – Have a tactile component to your brand experience – from the Harley roar to the Coke bottle shape, most enduring brands combine visual with other senses
    • DON’T – Use endorsements without thinking through the consequences of failure
    • DO – Feel confident about charging slightly more for enduring brands
    • DON’T – Discount. It is one of the quickest ways to kill a premium brand.

    A brand becomes a candidate for endurance when customers’ experience with the product transcends their expectations. Enduring brands provide not only a reliable experience, but also an aura of expectation beyond functionality. What is your favorite enduring brand? What are the qualities that make it stand the test of time?

    This article was originally published in the Business Observer.

  • What is Your Unique Selling Proposition?

    July 28, 2015 – One of the great “got it” moments of my career is when I first heard the phrase “unique selling proposition” (USP). Rosser Reeves was a true Mad Men advertising icon, whose accomplishments were used to model the television character Don Draper. Reeves wrote a book in the early 1960s called “Reality in Advertising,” which is as relevant as ever. In the book, he identifies a reasonably easy way to differentiate your business and coined the phrase unique selling proposition to describe it.

    Every company needs a USP to succeed. It is the one special thing about your company, service or product that sets you apart from all of your competitors. Your USP should be differentiating and shouldn’t be easy to duplicate by your competitors. Your USP should be promoted and advertised — ultimately becoming the cornerstone of your brand-building efforts.

    How do you know that you have a unique selling proposition? Every company has one. It is a matter of uncovering it, discovering it or inventing it if you are truly a commodity without differentiation. It is the thing that customers really like about you. It is what keeps them coming back instead of going to your competitors.

    Your unique selling proposition isn’t always obvious. It sometimes needs to be teased out of the myriad features and benefits associated with your product or business offerings. It generally goes beyond products and services to identify your special way of doing business — a closely held belief — a “tenet,” so to speak.

    Another way of looking at your USP is that it is your entire sales pitch summarized in a single sentence or thought. It is the proverbial elevator speech, but faster, boiled down to something you would say to a sales prospect as the doors to the elevator are closing. What would you say? One sentence that would clinch the sale.

    How do you create a USP that both sells your company and conveys your differentiating essence? There is no universal answer. It takes the serious work of thinking about your brand to identify an exceptional USP, but here are six steps I use to start the process:

    Know your customer – First and foremost, it is important to know your customers and how they perceive your brand. Ask them what makes your brand unique? Ask them why they come back to you? Maybe you already have a USP, but it just needs to be communicated more clearly.

    Know your environment – Take a fresh look at your competitive position in the marketplace. Who are your toughest competitors? How are they positioned and what brand space do they own? What is their unique selling proposition? How are you going to differentiate your brand from theirs?

    Can you disrupt your industry? – Every industry has areas that need to be reinvented and revitalized. If you are not positioned to be the disrupter you will most assuredly become the disrupted at some point. Make sure your USP is on the leading edge and not trailing change in your industry.

    Embrace the vision – If you have a vision of the future for the company and industry, take a fresh look at how that vision can be embodied in a USP.

    Write them down – Revisit your USP candidates daily for a week – get feedback from trusted management members. Narrow the list. Have your top management team vote on them. Make a decision on the ONE that will have the greatest positive long-term impact on the company.

    Codify the USP into a brand strategy – Once you have the USP you must then refine it into a brand message and incorporate it into the brand strategy making sure that it is communicated throughout the organization. These precious words will ultimately become your driving force for growth.

    Remember, your USP should not be confused with a tagline. A tagline, when it really works well, is a beacon for the company that sends a message to all of the key constituencies of the company about the essence of the corporate brand, including all of the products and services under the corporate umbrella.

    BMW’s “The Ultimate Driving Machine” is a classic and timeless tagline. The USP is that BMW is a car that has been engineered for YOU the driver. The tagline is more succinct and punchy. The tagline keeps the brand promise, but the USP is the deal closer.

    Developing a USP is an old-fashioned marketing tradition that has withstood the test of time as one of the most effective exercises you can do to differentiate your company in the marketplace.

    This article was originally published in the Business Observer.

  • Enthusiasm for Entrepreneurship

    July 28, 2015 – A few years ago, I took a Harvard Business School course on entrepreneurship. I have never been in a place with so many like-minded individuals from every corner of the globe. We were all entrepreneurs.

    I was also amazed by how these individuals from around the world were attuned to our culture — “Americanized” as one attendee described it. They seemed to know everything that was going on in our national news, from sports, to fashion, to politics. They also respected America’s culture of capitalism and free enterprise, which is something you don’t hear often as business and corporate leaders are so often demonized in the media. Even Hollywood usually poses the businessman as the bad guy.

    The course was refreshing and it got me to thinking…Where have all the American entrepreneurs gone? U.S. entrepreneurs and the startup companies they create are critical to healthy economic growth, but the annual number of startup companies has been falling for decades.

    According to a report by Inc. Magazine, the Kauffman Foundation, citing its own research and drawing on U.S. Census data, concluded that the number of companies less than a year old had declined as a share of all businesses by nearly 44% between 1978 and 2012.

    These entrepreneurs at Harvard came to learn about entrepreneurship and plant the seed of capitalism in their own country and culture. Now, I’m borrowing a seed from them to replant it here. That seed is “Enthusiasm for Entrepreneurship.” I believe as they did — entrepreneurship is a universal language that can solve many of the world’s economic woes.

    Upon learning that I had been an entrepreneur for decades, one of the participants asked me what kind of advice would I give someone who had a burning desire to become an entrepreneur but wasn’t entirely sure if they had what it takes. I developed 10 questions that should be considered before making the decision.

    So, you think you’re an entrepreneur? Answer these 10 Questions to be sure.

    1. What is your passion? What is it that gets you excited? What is important to you? List all of them and rank them in order of preference

    2. Are there career opportunities in any areas of your passion? Yes/No — if “no” is the answer then go to the next passion

    3. What is your best career path? Staff position/Entrepreneur — identify the quickest path to success

    4. What is the top-leading position attainable in your area of interest? Goal No. 1 — make that your ultimate career goal

    5. Is there a burning platform in this area (something that everyone says can’t be accomplished) that you believe you can achieve? Goal No. 2 — that becomes the vision

    6. Can you develop this into a five-year point of differentiation? Goal No. 3 — this is the mission

    7. What will it take to leverage this point of differentiation? Goal No. 4 — your process becomes the start of a business plan

    8. What are the obstacles to your success? Goal No. 5 — be honest, write them down, plan to solve them one-by-one

    9. What affiliations do you need to make to succeed? Goal No. 6 — list them and start to make those contacts (e.g. PR professional, banker, potential partners, etc.)

    10. Which individuals are critical to your success? Goal No. 7 — constantly identify and nurture contacts who can make a difference at key points along your growth path.

    Often, the most difficult challenge for entrepreneurs is finding the cash to launch a new enterprise. Banking in the past was the lifeblood of small business owners, yet many banks are not responsive to the needs of the today’s entrepreneur. According to the New York Fed, only 50% of businesses with revenue less than $1 million get financing through banks.

    No doubt recent years have been tough on new entrepreneurs. Not only do business owners have to battle an erratic economy, but they also have to swim against the political tides that malign free enterprise. I’m concerned we’re losing the next generation of business owners simply because entrepreneurship is no longer in style.

    Entrepreneurship may not be as cool as it was in past decades, but there is hope and there are many new opportunities at hand for aspiring entrepreneurs. Universities are offering more courses on entrepreneurship. There are many glowing success stories of entrepreneurs reinventing and disrupting older business models and industries. The tech sector is virtually booming with startups. New financing methods such as Crowdfunding are a viable and growing alternative to traditional banking. The aspiring entrepreneur only needs to do what comes naturally – START!

    This article was originally published in the Business Observer.

  • Tenet Partners Reveals the Top 15 Most Powerful Travel and Entertainment Brands

    New York, NY (July 07, 2015) – With the busy summer travel season officially kicking off this week, Tenet Partners, a leading brand innovation and marketing consultancy, today revealed its ranking of the Top 15 Most Powerful Travel and Entertainment Brands. The Walt Disney Company leads as the number #1 brand, with Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Marriott International taking the second and third place, respectively.

    The Top 15 Most Powerful Travel and Entertainment Brands are ranked by a unique, quantitative measure called BrandPower. Based upon an annual US survey of approximately ten thousand opinion elites and business-decision makers, BrandPower is a weighted composite of two key metrics that contribute to a brand’s ability to drive long-term growth: Familiarity and Favorability. Familiarity measures awareness of the brand. Favorability is the perception of the brand (among those who are well aware of it), and is based upon three attributes that tie directly to future business performance: Overall Reputation, Perception of Management, and Investment Potential.

    Key Findings

    • The Walt Disney Company leads as the #1 Most Powerful Travel and Entertainment Brand. With a BrandPower of 75.8, both its Familiarity (degree of awareness) and Favorability (positive perception) increased year-over-year. Across the three dimensions that together form Favorability: Overall Reputation, Perception of Management and Investment Potential, the past year proved to be a strong one for the company, as each dimension reached its highest point since 2010. The company was also a strong performer on Tenet’s 2015 Top 100 Most Powerful Brands, taking the #4 position.

    • Hotel & Entertainment brands dominate the Top 15 ranking with a total of eight brands hailing from the category, including Walt Disney (#1), Hilton Hotels & Resorts (#2), Marriott International (#3), Trump Organization (#4), MGM Resorts International (#10), Las Vegas Sands (#11), Caesars Entertainment (#12) and Starwood Hotels & Resorts (#15). While hotel brands are the most represented across the Top 15, most of these brands’ Favorability scores (with the exception of Disney) experienced some of the sharpest declines year-over-year. These findings signal that opinion elites/business-decision makers (frequent travelers themselves) have diminishing confidence in these hotel brands, and in the eyes of these savvy investors – are less attractive financial assets, unlikely to outperform their travel and entertainment peers in the sector.

    • Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Marriott International: As overall awareness (Familiarity) of these brands continues to grow, but with Favorability declining, this movement indicates that their respective brand equities and reputations aren’t necessarily moving their brand in a positive direction. While consumers’ are becoming more aware of these companies, their confidence regarding their overall growth, leadership, and ability to secure future earnings is waning.

      The past five years proved to be difficult for the nation’s hotel industry. Faced with declining demand for rooms, increased construction costs, and the rising cost of fuel, many hotel companies struggled to grow their brands. However, coming out of the recession, both Hilton and Marriott have moved swiftly to address consumers’ evolving needs and desires. Hilton continues to be on the forefront of social media and digital innovation. Last year, the company was recognized by Travel + Leisure for their award-winning “International Use it or Lose it Week” campaign, in which together with Foursquare, created geo-targeted check-in ads to remind people to take full advantage of their vacation days.

      Marriott faced a number of challenges this past year, contributing to its decline in Favorability. From facing stiff competition from peer-to-peer booking site, Airbnb, to falling short on revenue earnings to confronting a public controversy around its decision to block guest WiFi, the company is now undertaking a major shift in its strategy to appeal to the next generation of consumers: millennial travelers. The company’s recent efforts to tap into this growing audience include launching a rooftop picnic pop-up in London and teaming up with Netflix to become the first major hotel chain to offer Netflix-enabled TVs in every room.

    • Leading airline brands, including United Airlines (#6), Delta Air Lines (#7), and US Airways (#14) demonstrate the strongest brand momentum across the Top 15, increasing on both dimensions of BrandPower: Familiarity and Favorability. Not only have these three brands grown their overall awareness and improved upon their corporate reputation year-over-year, but have done so consistently since 2010. Southwest, consistently rated as one of the top airlines in customer service, has shown an increase in year-over-year Favorability.

      Across the industry, more recent declines in oil prices following the recession have helped airlines add more routes and offer more affordable flights, in turn allowing them to expand their market presence and service networks. When American Airlines (#5), the leading airline brand, and US Airways merged in 2013 it created the world’s biggest airline. Taking the American Airlines name, it absorbed a global network of nearly 6,700 flights to more than 330 destinations across 50 countries. Since 2005, mergers have reduced the US’s major airlines brands from nine to four. American, United, Delta and Southwest now control more than 80% of the US market.

      While expanding their market presence, working to provide superior customer service and build customer loyalty, have long been key guiding principles of these leading airline brands. Innovations in in-flight entertainment, product enhancements that include larger over-head storage and extra legroom space, to smartphone apps that allow customers to better manage and plan their travel experience, have all played a vital role boosting consumer awareness, but also in creating stronger brand experiences and associations.

    • Rental car brands, with only two brands represented amongst the Top 15, demonstrated a wide disparity in terms of their performance. Avis Budget Group (#9) outperformed competitor Hertz Global (#13) by a wide margin, earning a BrandPower score of 40.4, 11 points higher than Hertz. Across the board, Avis Budget Group improved year-over-year on Familiarity and across the three dimensions of Favorability: Overall Reputation, Perception of Management, and Investment Potential.

      Despite the wave of auto recalls that hit the auto industry this past year, the rental car industry has fared well. Both Avis Budget Group and Hertz Global Holdings have reduced their fleets, helping them increase their prices. In the wake of splitting its auto and construction-equipment businesses into two companies, Hertz encountered a corporate accounting error, which marred three years of its financial reports, and then released a 3 percent decline in sales year-over-year. Meanwhile, Avis Budget saw shares grow 50 percent in 2014.

    “While hotels are well represented on this year’s Top Travel and Entertainment Brands, they are under pressure from weaker corporate reputations,” said Steve Makadok, Partner of Tenet’s CoreBrand Analytics practice. “Benefiting from high awareness in the marketplace, the challenge – and opportunity for these brands is to build on their existing brand equity and focus on creating more meaningful, innovative and compelling customer experiences that will allow them to drive long-term growth and enterprise value.”

    The Top 15 Most Powerful Travel & Entertainment Brands

    Indicates a significantly lower Familiarity/Favorability vs. 2014

    Indicates a significantly higher Familiarity/Favorability vs. 2014

    Indicates a change of only +/- .5 year-over-year

    Methodology

    A company’s BrandPower score is determined by a survey of approximately ten thousand influential people on two key brand metrics: Familiarity and Favorability. This carefully screened audience, representing opinion elites/business-decision-makers at the top 20 percent of American corporations are polled on the following:

    Familiarity – Respondents are considered to be familiar with a brand if they state that they know more than just the company name. Familiarity scores can range from 0 to 100.

    Favorability – Respondents familiar with a corporation are then asked about three dimensions that together, form a Favorability score, also on a scale of 0 to 100.

    • Overall Reputation – Do you have a favorable impression of the corporate brand?
    • Perception of Management – What is your perception of the company’s management? How would you assess the way senior leadership leads the enterprise and engages stakeholders? Does leadership have future-forward outlook on the market in which it operates, as well as on the competition?
    • Investment Potential – Would you invest in this company?

    BrandPower is calculated as a function of Familiarity and Favorability, enabling easy comparison among competitors, against industry averages and against world-class brands.

    About this ranking

    The starting point for determining the Top 15 Most Powerful Travel and Entertainment Brands is the CoreBrand® Index (CBI) – a quantitative database based on a continuous benchmark tracking survey of nearly 1,000 companies across 50 industries. The study has been in the field continuously since 1990.

    About Tenet Partners

    Formed from the merger of Brandlogic and CoreBrand, Tenet Partners is a brand innovation and marketing consultancy that helps companies create brand value and unearth business opportunities by putting customers at the center of their business strategies.

    For more information

    Jessica McHie
    Photo of Jessica McHie Partner, Business Development
    Business Development and Marketing
    Tenet Partners
    11 West 42nd Street
    Penthouse Floors 31/32
    New York, NY 10036 US
    +1 212 329-3166

  • Tenet Partners Releases 2015 Top 100 Most Powerful Brands Report

    New York, NY (May 12, 2015) – Tenet Partners℠, a leading brand innovation and marketing consultancy, released today its 8th annual Top 100 Most Powerful Brands report, which ranks the top 100 corporate brands in terms of market awareness and reputation.

    The Coca-Cola Company continues its lead as the #1 Most Powerful Brand – a distinction it has held since the Top 100 was first created in 2008. Amazon (#65) having jumped 20 places leads as the Top 100 ‘top riser.’ Apple (#5) continues it meteoric rise on the ranking, moving up five places from #10 last year. Since 2010, the tech giant has continued to strengthen its BrandPower score and climbed an impressive fifty-one places over the past five years.

    Our findings show that some of the fastest-rising brands: Amazon (#65, +20), Intel (#94, +14), Google (#15, +11), and Apple (#5, +5), are outpacing their peers by reimaging customer experience. Through strategic acquisitions, collaborative brand partnerships, and continued investment in R&D, these leading brands are transforming their offerings to deliver greater value to their customers, businesses, and shareholders.

    “The Top 100 Most Powerful Brands demonstrate that value creation stems from sustained investment to drive brand-led innovation and compelling customer experiences,” said Hampton Bridwell, CEO of Tenet Partners. By successfully fueling their business strategies with a more holistic approach to brand, digital and service design to meet customers’ needs and aspirations across diverse channels, the Top 100 brands are spurring growth – and creating market advantage over both the short and long term.”

    Each year, Tenet Partners analyzes the data in the CoreBrand® Index (CBI) to determine the Top 100 Most Powerful Brands based on high market awareness and positive brand perceptions. Business decision makers at the top 20% of American corporations (VP level and above – representing the investment community, potential business partners, and business customers) are surveyed on two key metrics that contribute to a brand’s strength:

    • Familiarity – Measures awareness of the brand. Respondents are considered to be familiar with a brand if they state they know more than just the company name. Familiarity scores range from 0 to 100.
    • Favorability – The perception of the brand, based on how it performs across three key attributes: Overall Reputation, Perception of Management, and Investment Potential. Favorability scores also range from 0 to 100.

    The quantitative Familiarity and Favorability metrics are then combined into a composite score called BrandPower – and are reported on a 100-rank scale. In order to be in the Top 100 Most Powerful Brands, companies must be considered a corporate brand and have been publicity traded and tracked by the CoreBrand Index for more than five years.

    “Good management – both of the brand and of a company – results in two outcomes: strong familiarity and high favorability,” said James Gregory, Chairman of Tenet Partners. “By uncovering these two critical dimensions that contribute to brand health, business-decision makers can gain important intelligence in all the areas that define business success.”

    Key Findings

    _BrandPower is growing significantly across the board_
    Five years ago, the average BrandPower score for the Top 100 was 60.7. This year, the average BrandPower is 63.1. This momentum is the strongest since the recession, suggesting that as corporations continue to invest in strategically building and managing their brand, they regaining the confidence of business-decision makers.

    _Consumer Cyclicals made the strongest showing in the Top 100_
    Companies that depend on the business cycle and economic conditions – such as automotive, entertainment and retail – are the single largest group in the Top 100, representing a total of 37 brands. Hailing from the Hotel & Entertainment industry, Walt Disney (#4) leads as the strongest consumer cyclical. Within the sector overall, Retail is the most represented industry with 14 ranked companies. Barnes & Noble is the top retail brand, rising to #29 this year.

    _Communication spending is up overall, with bigger spenders reaping the most benefit_
    The ten brands that moved up the most in the rankings this year have increased spending to drive familiarity at a much greater rate than the ten brands that declined the most. This demonstrates that the right level of investment, strategically allocated, will produce significant results.

    Notable BrandPower Winners for 2015

    The Coca-Cola Company (#1) – The #1 Most Powerful Brand of 2015

    The Coca-Cola Company continued its lead as the #1 Most Powerful Brand. The 125-year-old Coca-Cola Company never rests on its laurels and continues to evolve around the ever-changing needs and wants of consumers. After falling yeas in a row, Coke’s U.S. soft-drink volumes rose 2.5% last summer, thanks in part to the hit “Share a Coke” campaign that will return this year. Also, last year, the company responded to health-conscious consumers by introducing Coca-Cola Life, a reduced-calorie cola naturally sweetened with cane sugar and stevia leaf extract.

    Amazon (#65) – The Top 100 ‘Top Riser’

    Amazon’s BrandPower has been on the rise since 2010. The company jumped 20 spots from its previous 2014 #85 position to enter at #65 this year. The brand excels at responding to, and often exceeding, consumers’ expectations of convenience, selection, and price. Built on a culture of innovation, the company spent upwards of $9.1 billion in research and development in 2014. Data-driven content and email marketing is a key success factor for the company. By leveraging rich information about its users, Amazon is able to create exceptional and intimate customer experiences.

    Apple (#5) – Fastest-rising brand amongst the top 10

    Apple jumped from #10th to #5th this year– becoming the fastest-rising brand amongst the top 10. Both its Familiarity and Favorability scores have increased, due in large part of its innovative products and outstanding market performance. The tech giant is bringing diverse elements together – talent, brands, new technologies to maintain its reputation for outstanding, relevant customer experiences.

    Intel (#94) – Top new entrant to the Top 100

    The California chipmaker is a new entrant into Top 100, having jumped fourteen places from #108. In late 2013, Intel created a new business unit specifically aimed at the Internet of Things (loT). Although the loT business only accounted for about 4% of Intel’s sales and operating income, it exceeded the company’s struggling mobile division, which posted an operating loss of $4.2 billion. This move promises to make Intel an important part of what should become a multi-brand experience embedded in the everyday lives of consumers.

    Three industry sectors tracked in the CBI – Technology, Financial Services, and Automotive – have experienced profound shifts and changes following the 2008 financial crisis. By building dynamic brands that defy industry norms, these leaders are delivering new experiences and driving value through innovation.

    Technology

    Brands hailing from the technology sector stand out as Top 100 ‘top risers.’ Of the top 10 biggest risers on the ranking, tech brands make up the five biggest BrandPower movers: Amazon (#65, +20), Intel (#94, +14), eBay (#32, +13), IBM (#32, +13) and Google (#15, +11). Amazon’s rise over the last five years is remarkable; up 74 places since 2010. Although CEO Jeff Bezos is not one to shy away from disrupting the status quo – from experimenting with delivering drones (and making a splash by talking about them on CBS’s _60 Minutes_) to acquiring Internet of Things platform 2lemetry – his vision for the brand has remained intact: to be the most customer-centric company on earth. Google follows close on Amazon’s heels, rising 73 places since 2010. The company is continuing to invest enthusiastically, from acquiring Nest, to experimenting with self-driving cars, to its most recent collaboration with Johnson & Johnson to help develop a robot-assisted surgery platform. These initiatives are helping Google extend its reach not only in the marketplace, but also in consumers’ minds.

    Financial Services

    Morgan Stanley (#57, +9), Charles Schwab (#64, +10), Wells Fargo (#97, +13) all experienced significant increases in BrandPower, as the United States banking industry continues to recover from the global financial crisis. A key strategy for financial services brands has been a renewed focus on customer experience. For example, a hallmark of Well Fargo’s corporate vision is its “One Wells Fargo” initiative. With a diverse range of products and business – banking, investments, mortgage, and insurance – One Wells Fargo serves an enterprise-wide guiding principle. It offers a roadmap for engaging with customers across multiple business lines in addition to providing collaboration strategies across business units.

    Automotive

    After years of soft performance due to the recession, consumers are giving in to pent-up demand and are purchasing cars with a vengeance. According to tracking company Autodata, 16.5 million new autos hit the streets in 2014 – the highest number since the record of 16.9 million in the pre-recession days of 2006. Despite rising sales, the majority automotive companies slid in the BrandPower: Harley-Davidson (#10, -5), BMW (#21, -4), Volkswagen (#31, -4), Honda (#36, -6), Toyota (#42, -5), Volvo (#44, -8), Ford Motor (#49, +2), General Motors (#61, no change), Nissan Motors (#83, -6). Ford (#49, +2) is the uncontested industry leader, increasing its BrandPower year-over-year. Former President and CEO, Alan Mulally, has described Ford as being a technology company as much as a car company. The automaker is a leader among American car companies in hybrid technology, with its Fusion Energi winning 2013 Green Car of the Year. The company also pioneered enhancing the driver experience through technology with one of the first integrated connectivity systems, Ford Sync. Since its debut in 2007, the technology has continued to evolve and become more customer-friendly

    The Most Powerful Brands of 2015 Website

    View the full list of the Top 100 Most Powerful Brands. The full report is available to download by visiting tenetpartners.com/top100.

    About Tenet Partners

    Formed from the merger of Brandlogic and CoreBrand, Tenet Partners is a brand innovation and marketing consultancy that helps companies create brand value and unearth business opportunities by putting customers at the center of their business strategies.

    For more information

    Jessica McHie
    Photo of Jessica McHie Partner, Business Development
    Business Development and Marketing
    Tenet Partners
    11 West 42nd Street
    Penthouse Floors 31/32
    New York, NY 10036 US
    +1 212 329-3166

  • Tenet Partners Appoints New Head of Brand Analytics

    New York, NY (April 27, 2015) – Tenet Partners, a leading brand innovation and marketing consultancy, announced the appointment of Steve Makadok as Partner of its CoreBrand™ Analytics practice.

    Makadok, who brings to Tenet Partners more than twenty years of experience driving strategic business transformation, will play a pivotal role deepening and expanding new client relationships stemming from Tenet’s CoreBrand Analytics capabilities.

    For 25 years, CoreBrand Analytics has provided corporate leaders with a robust suite of benchmarking and diagnostic tools, quantifying the link between brand strength and financial performance. Leveraging the CoreBrand Analytics portfolio and database, Makadok will help senior leaders gain valuable insights into how they can better measure – and enhance the impact of their brand-building efforts. These capabilities and unique insights include:

    • Benchmarking the health and vitality of their corporate brand relative to competitors and aspirational peers
    • Monitoring the impact and resilience of the corporate brand during a crisis
    • Forecasting the optimal level of marketing investment to drive business performance and shareholder value
    • Determining the financial value of the corporate brand to help in decision-making around mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures and licensing opportunities

    “Today’s CMOs, CCOs and brand marketers are increasingly being asked to quantitatively support the rationale for their corporate brand investments – and truly require a multi-dimensional view of how their brand is driving financial performance.” said Makadok. “Tenet is a proven leader in corporate branding and brand measurement and I’m thrilled to be working alongside some of the brightest pioneers in the industry.”

    Makadok comes to Tenet from the Reputation Institute where he served as Managing Director and Partner of North America. During his tenure at Reputation Institute, Makadok drove significant growth and oversaw relationships with world-class companies including Harley-Davidson, Fidelity Investments, Cigna, and Amway. Prior to the Reputation Institute, Steve held management positions at a number of brand consultancies, advertising agencies and marketing research firms, including Siegel & Gale, FutureBrand, Synovate and J. Walter Thompson. He earned an MBA in Marketing from Pace University’s Lubin School of Business and a dual Bachelors degree in Economics and Political Science from Stony Brook University.

    Stepping into this new role marks Makadok’s return to CoreBrand Analytics. Prior to Brandlogic and CoreBrand joining forces and forming Tenet Partners in 2014, he served as Group Director of CoreBrand’s Brand Intelligence and Strategy practice from 1999 to 2002.

    Commenting on the appointment, Jim Gregory, Chairman of Tenet Partners, said: “I am delighted to welcome Steve to Tenet Partners. Having previously been part of the CoreBand team, he brings with him proven success helping C-suite leaders drive growth and innovation at their organization. As we look to the future as Tenet Partners, Steve will be an instrumental part of our continued success, helping to solve some our clients most pressing challenges.”

    About Tenet Partners

    Formed from the merger of Brandlogic and CoreBrand, Tenet Partners is a brand innovation and marketing consultancy that helps companies create brand value and unearth business opportunities by putting customers at the center of their business strategies.

    For more information

    Jessica McHie
    Photo of Jessica McHie Partner, Business Development
    Business Development and Marketing
    Tenet Partners
    11 West 42nd Street
    Penthouse Floors 31/32
    New York, NY 10036 US
    +1 212 329-3166