Putting SA brand measurement on the global map

Sinclair signed an agreement with TBWA recently to form a joint venture between the two companies. The BrandMetrics tool will now be offered worldwide through TBWA's Disruption Consultancy and it's my bet that the already busy Prof Sinclair had better put in a few more hours in the gym every week because he's going to need the extra stamina for what is bound to become a lot more international travel than he's ever done before.

No surprise

Certainly, the move by BrandMetrics to go global comes as no surprise. The brand measurement tool developed by Sinclair some years ago has proved to be extremely efficient and effective, and falls well within the parameters set by international best practice.

Asked whether the deal with TBWA implied negotiation directly with Reg Lascaris, Sinclair said that it certainly did. And this, too, gives added import to the arrangement because just signing a deal with a global group is one thing but having it negotiated locally by someone such as Lascaris, who is not only regional president of TBWA in Africa and the middle East but who, with partner John Hunt, is on the worldwide board of TBWA, means that it will be taken very seriously and not just added to a long menu list of services.

Already hard at work

Within weeks of signing the deal, Sinclair said BrandMetrics was already hard at work integrating systems and making sure BrandMetrics complements the other two tools offered by TDC - Disruption Workshops and Connections Audit.

"In January, I travel to Hong Kong to work with the local office and TDC's global managing director, Michael McComb, in introducing BrandMetrics to the Asian market and to the rest of the group.

"There is a synchronistic component, too," said Sinclair. "In April 2007, the third edition of the world's top academic text book on brand equity will be published. This is Strategic Brand Management by Professor Kevin Lane Keller.

"It will contain a brief review of the BrandMetrics model and a short section on the financial accounting aspects of brand measurement, based on a paper that I wrote. Since this was arranged many months before this deal was even contemplated, it is a happy co-incidence that as the model goes global, the mentions in Kevin's book will underline the acceptability of the approach."

350 valuation

BrandMetrics is now only five years old and has had considerable success here in South Africa. It has completed more than 350 brand valuations for the country's top brands and leading companies.

"I have always believed BrandMetrics to be world class," said Sinclair, "and through luminaries like Professors Keller and Raj Srivastava at Emory University in Atlanta and others who know the model and have said complementary things about it, we have some notable support for that claim. Now we must prove this in the world market."

I have no doubt that they will.