Tenet Partners is centered on our belief that powerful brands have one thing in common: Effective, strategic brand management. At the core of that belief is the vital importance of true objectivity when it comes to making sound business decisions.
Since 1990, Tenet Partners℠ CoreBrand Analytics has set the standard for reliable corporate reputation data and insight. 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of Tenet Partners CoreBrand® Index, a unique dataset based on rigorous quantitative research conducted annually among 10,000 opinion elites and B2B decision-makers. This landmark study on corporate reputation diagnoses the health and trajectory of 1,000 companies across 50 industries and assesses the brand value and ROI of their marketing initiatives.
Our CoreBrand Analytics practice empowers C-Suite officers and other functional leaders with quantitative information and measurement tools necessary to understand their brand’s performance, the competitive environment they operate in and prescriptive guidance needed to drive success.
Following up on my last blog post, here are another five important business issues and related reasons why Tenet’s CoreBrand Analytics can help your C-Suite improve its decision-making. CoreBrand Analytics…
*1. Predicts Market Shifts Ahead of the Curve *
Confident, game-changing decision-making is about uncovering marketplace needs, and knowing where competitors and the market are going before others do. This is best informed by asking the right questions among stakeholders that matter most to your organization, creating predictive models that provide actionable answers and conducting ongoing measurement to gauge success and make course corrections as needed.
Prior to the arrival of game changers like Amazon and eBay, IBM was busy re-engineering how business would be conducted in the 21st century. Together with our colleagues across all IBM business units, Tenet Partners went to work to communicate IBM’s revolutionary vision, across markets, industries and geographies. The overall culture had to change from an insular position of “producing products to sell and that the world would, unquestionably, buy” to one that took the time to focus on clients’ emerging needs and what problems they were looking to solve. Tenet was there to help IBM take its first steps into what we know today as content marketing.
*2. Uncovers Competitive Advantage and Drives Innovation *
By measuring the equity of your brand versus competitors on dimensions that drive business value, the C-suite gains important intelligence for maintaining and creating new, innovative areas of competitive advantage.
*3. Informs Mergers & Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances *
The market for M&A in the US in 2014 was robust when measured by both total transaction value and volume and it appears that 2015 could turn out to be another banner year, perhaps among the strongest in recent history.
M&A can be tricky because cultural attachment to preexisting business entities can be quite strong and politically charged. By taking emotion out of the equation and objectively assessing the value and contribution of all brands involved, leadership can strategically deploy those brands for maximum impact. Tenet’s Brand Equity Valuation (BEV) can be used to determine which corporate name has the greatest worth when deciding which name to use post transaction. Our BEV approach examines corporate brand in two complementary ways – Dollar Value and corporate brand as a Percentage of Market Capitalization. The Dollar Value approach ensures that the brand is properly accounted for in M&A activity while the Percentage approach enables executives responsible for managing the brand to see how effectively it is working over time to build value for the company.
Tenet Partners worked closely with Zurich Re when acquiring Hartford Steam Boiler. Extensive research among stakeholders yielded insights that objectively informed the decision to maintain the HSB name in the US given its strong brand equity. Walking away from the HSB name, as originally intended, would have resulted in a significant decline in HSB’s revenue.
*4. Creates Licensing Opportunities for Incremental Revenue Streams *
A highly regarded and valued brand attracts compelling, synergistic partnership opportunities. Quantifying the brand’s dollar value opens the door for new revenue streams and predictable growth through licensing efforts. Licensing is a great way to earn significant income from the brand itself while extending its marketplace presence through collaborative affiliations. Examples of licensed products for powerful corporate brands include Apple licensing its name to Bose for its Sound System iPod docking station and Caterpillar licensing its name to a variety of manufacturers of apparel and footwear, toys and other lifestyle accessories.
*5. Defines the Value and ROI of Corporate Citizenship *
We know from our brand valuation work that being a good corporate citizen can have a direct impact on business results and market capitalization. Quantifying the impact of sustainability, philanthropy and other goodwill efforts can make CSR a data-driven business decision vs. one based purely on good intentions.
Tenet’s Sustainability Leadership Report pioneered the comparison of real vs. perceived sustainability performance. The report benchmarked and segmented 100 leading companies tracked in the CoreBrand Index database into four performance segments, outlining the marketing implications of each. Moreover, the study illustrated that social factors are twice as important as environmental and governance factors in determining perceptions of good corporate citizenship, reaffirming that sustainability is bigger than just being “green.”
I hope these business opportunities and their connection to data-driven decision-making resonate with you. I welcome the opportunity to start a conversation about how Tenet can put CoreBrand Analytics to work for your organization. Please reach out to me at smakadok@tenetpartners.com.
Download Tenet Partners 2015 Top 100 Most Powerful Brands report.
