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Zanthus Launches Comprehensive Brand Equity Model

New Customer-based Model Maps Company Operations to Market Share

Portland, OR, July 9, 2002 - Zanthus today announced the release of a unique customer-based brand equity model that maps company operations to market share, enabling clients to best allocate their company's resources.

The Zanthusphere™ brand equity model is a comprehensive, multi-function model that puts customers at the center of brand equity. "The premise of the model is this: developing more and more loyal customers means justified price premiums and/or higher margins and ultimately, a better total shareholder return," said David W. Edwards, Zanthus' founder and CEO. "The model shows clients where they should put their company's resources to drive topline growth." The model also takes into account external factors like current and likely market conditions and the financial condition of the brand under study.

The partial-least-squares-based model can be applied to the client company, key competitors and the industry as a whole. The result is a comparative customer-centric view of the market. In gauging brand equity, the model provides clients with the following:

Resource allocation guidelines to improve customer loyalty and by extension, market share;
A segmentation scheme based on loyalty;
Positioning/messaging guidelines based on a comparative analysis of purchase drivers across brands; and
Ad spend metrics to determine the efficacy of the media budget.

Clients can choose to supplement the standard Zanthusphere™ brand equity model with one or more research modules that address specific customer perceptions or market conditions. These modules include the following:

A user experience module that generates additional data about the purchase decision and product/service usage situations;
A brand association module for getting at the heart of brand name and/or logomark connotations and customers' respective levels of emotional involvement with the brand;
A brand asset module that provides the financial context for customers' perceptions of the brand, market price and trade leverage;
A market analysis module focused on external market forces like prevailing trends, the competitive milieu and the category's price history; and
A brand relation module that maps customers' current perceptions of brands within the company's brand portfolio and evaluates the potential for brand extensions.

"The Zanthusphere™ brand equity model reaffirms Zanthus' commitment to capturing the big picture," said Mike Lehman, Zanthus' president. "The model recognizes the inter-related nature of most business issues and provides our clients with a basis for making the best long-term decisions."

About Zanthus
Zanthus brings a unique scientific rigor to business consulting. The kind of research-informed consulting emerging and established leaders need to make critical business decisions—confidently. Based in Portland, Ore., the firm provides a rare combination of research and industry expertise exclusively to high-tech companies. The firm is particularly well-known for its commitment to reliable research methods and analytical techniques.

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