A message from our CEO

WELCOME TO TENET’S 2020 TOP 100 MOST POWERFUL BRANDS REPORT.

Few moments in our lives, careers and even mankind’s past are truly remarkable. The 2020 pandemic is our moment. Disease and uncertainty have halted life in every corner of society, reshaping and reorganizing economies and ecosystems over one of the shortest periods in history. Each shift profoundly impacts us all. This report, while looking back into 2019 and early 2020, aims to help leaders consider the changes that will impact their companies, specifically the corporate brands.

For over 25 years, Tenet has tracked corporate brands through the longest longitudinal study of its kind. This body of work drives the only exchange traded fund that seeks unrealized value in corporate brands, guides CMOs, CEOs and boards, and helps brand managers understand how communication investments impact company value.

This year’s report, and the supplemental report coming later this year, have special importance to our team. For 2019 and Q1 of 2020 leading into the pandemic, corporate brands were at their highest BrandPower and brand valuations in our research’s history. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and others achieved enterprise valuations that seemed impossible a decade ago, lifting many boats with them. With few exceptions, brands have enjoyed a robust time of growth.

Today, we see vast swaths of winners and losers in the pandemic. What is interesting, and unique in modern history, is witnessing many industries face dramatic headwinds while others rise to newfound dominance. It may take years to close the divides between the haves and have nots, if it’s even possible.

Pre-pandemic, consumers had settled into strong B2C and B2B brand relationships. And, in a heartbeat, those relationships shifted. What was essential, was no longer. What is essential now, is redefining our take on companies and their existence. Many consumers are choosing new brands as essential to their lives in this moment. And, craving ones that they have been forced to put aside. Lastly, they’ve deemed new brands as essential to them going forward. The essential brand is the essence of this year’s report. We hope that no matter where you are on the continuum of being essential, that these strategies can help all companies create sustainable competitive advantage and resiliency.

This report is a pre-pandemic snapshot — our follow-up later this year will look toward the other side of the recovery. Both reports will provide CMOs and brand leaders sound guidance to re-center and move forward.

Hampton Bridwell
CEO, Tenet Partners

Your customers have never been more connected. Are you connecting with them?

Digital has dramatically transformed the way we communicate. It’s leveled the playing field so that your customers are as in control of your brand’s perception as you are. Rather than speaking to your audience, you now have the ability — and responsibility — to speak with them. While that may sound daunting, this revolution in communication also offers new and exciting opportunities you can capitalize on through digital marketing. Here’s how we, at Tenet, can help.

Strategy

Meeting connected customers, on their own terms.

Customers don’t sit back and listen to advertising, nor are they waiting to be found. Instead, they’re on the web and social media, exercising the power of the Internet to make choices for themselves. This new order requires new ways of courting consumers and influencing their decision-making process. That’s where digital marketing, grounded in solid strategy, comes in.

At Tenet Partners, we craft strategies that strive to build an integrated approach to your digital marketing to maximize results. This strategy is born out a clear understanding of your aspiration and seeks perfect alignment between your goals and your customers’ needs. As we uncover your strengths and potential weaknesses, as well as determine where your audience lives online and off, we are able to develop a plan of action on how to engage with your customers in a way that creates value for both you and them.

• Social media strategy
• Data strategy
• Mobile strategy
• Usability testing
• Information strategy
• Journey mapping
• Media planning
• Digital audit

Execution

Building digital campaigns that drive real business outcomes.

When thinking about a digital marketing campaign, go beyond the obvious – websites, email lists, ads. Instead, think about the whole customer experience. One enriched by technology that enables you to interact with your audiences and demonstrate your keen understanding of their needs.

It’s about your customer’s journey as they go about selecting partners with the right products and services. Make sure you are by their side, at every turn on that journey.

Tenet’s multi-disciplinary team of brand strategists will start by helping you build awareness of your brand in the mind of the connected customer, using the latest technologies to find your audience at a time and place of their choosing. We leverage the power of data to create personalized messaging, tailored to the needs and wants of the connected customer. And, leaving nothing to chance, we develop the systems to measure the impact of your interactions, giving you the ability to create continuous improvements in your digital marketing campaign.

• Websites
• Microsites
• Landing pages
• Email marketing
• Paid search
• Social media
• Display advertising

## Insight

Providing insight on the latest, most effective methods to market your brand.

With the rapid growth and adoption of new channels and touch points in digital marketing, it’s important to select a partner that fully understands the potential the current environment affords you.

A quick search on the web will give you hundreds of vendors who can produce an email campaign. Our approach is different. It is an on-going partnership to help you understand how these new channels, used in a strategic way, can influence your audience and build a preference and trust for your brand. And as a marketer, we know you’re looking for that extra edge.

Tenet will also provide actionable, data-based insight to justify your marketing investments and quantify results. This gives you a complete picture of your ROI, enabling you to make reasoned decisions on how to move forward in achieving your marketing goals.

• Loyalty marketing
• Surveys
• Channel planning
• Social media management
• Online community management
• Customer value analysis