The Musings of Metis

Is Brand Restoration Insurance a Good Investment?

An interesting article was posted by FT.com last week where it discussed the advantages and disadvantages of brand restoration insurance offered by AON. The full article can be found here.

We will have read recently of a number of companies who may have benefitted from such insurance: BP and Toyota for example and the insurance is all very well for larger companies who can afford the premiums but what about smaller companies? The crux of the article lies in the following paragraph:

“Brand and reputation are the sum of the investment of management time and energy in the invention, manufacture, marketing and distribution of successful products and services. Reputation management may sustain and promote your brand in good times and crisis management may help salvage some of it when they turn bad. But bosses who neglect the building blocks of their company’s success will find in a crisis that they have no reputation to defend, no matter how much insurance or advice they have bought.”

Before companies invest large sums of money in insuring their brand and reputation, they must first have brand and reputation worth protecting. This occurs through a long term commitment and through consistency in approach and if properly managed as the company’s “most valuable asset”, the need for insurance may not be needed.

Is this insurance really needed, or has it been created as a consequence of a cut-throat, win-by- any-means marketplace? Is good housekeeping the better option? Perhaps the “insurance premium” might be better spent building the brand value inside the business with employees, partners and suppliers to secure the equity? Do you agree?

Electrical giant Dixons calls on Metis Partners to market two of its best-known brands

Glasgow-based intellectual property (IP) asset specialist Metis Partners has been appointed by Dixons Retail plc (Dixons) to market and sell the IP assets, of two of the multinational electrical giant’s best-known and longest-established brands, Saisho and Miranda.

The sale is a coup for Metis Partners, and enhances its reputation as the destination of choice for organisations seeking to generate a return on IP assets such as brands which may have benefitted from significant investment in the past but are no longer critical to future strategy. By using Metis Partners, they can generate a significant return on these assets that would be otherwise written off.

Dixons, which spans 28 countries and employs more than 40,000 people, called on Glasgow-based Metis Partners to find buyers for its Saisho own-brand product line, including audio, TV and video products, and Miranda, the internationally recognised camera and photographic equipment brand.

The Saisho brand has created nearly £27 million in sales since it was first introduced by Dixons in 1982 as a technology range which over the past few decades has become a household name. Assets for sale include goodwill in the brand and reputation in addition to 16 trade marks providing international protection.

The Miranda brand, originally created by a Japanese company more than 50 years ago, was acquired by Dixons in 1981 and was used on SLR cameras, compact cameras, lenses and other photographic equipment. It has generated more than £29 million for Dixons across its product range. Assets in the sale include goodwill in the Miranda brand and reputation as well as 20 international trade marks.

Stephen Robertson, CEO of Metis Partners, said: “These are significant brand names which have served Dixons well over the years. They have benefited from enormous advertising and media exposure within the retailer’s campaigns and we expect there to be keen interest given the outstanding levels of consumer recognition attached to them. "We believe Saisho and Miranda will be of interest to companies suffering the brand provenance gap (lack of recognition and heritage) where companies are selling high quality tech products / services but are unable to charge a premium for them. This is often because they are not being sold under a recognisable brand - companies in this situation could buy Miranda or Saisho and “hop” onto the brand recognition and brand recall that already exists in the market for these brands.”

All offers and / or notes of interest should be directed to Nat Baldwin at Metis Partners by 4.00pm on Thursday, 26th May, 2011.

For further information, please contact Nat Baldwin at Metis Partners, Trinity House, 33 Lynedoch Street, Glasgow, G3 6AA. Tel: 0141 353 3011.