John Murphy (branding consultant)

John Matthew Murphy, born 1944 in Essex, pioneered the art of brand valuation, that is, measuring the accounting value of a company's brands as assets, and in so doing, he stimulated the development of branding as an aspect of business. Murphy founded Interbrand, one of the first (and still one of the leading) branding consultancies, and named many familiar brands. Brunel University admitted him to the honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences in 2001.[1]

Product names

In London in 1974, Murphy launched Novamark, a small company specialising in product naming and in trade mark registrations. Brand names born of his efforts include:[2][1][3]

  • Prestel, the UK Post Office videotex service
  • British Telecom, then part of the Post Office, subsequently BT
  • Metro, a range of cars
  • HobNob, a biscuit
  • Homebase, a chain of home improvement stores and garden centres
  • Prozac, an antidepressant drug
  • Slice, a range soft drinks
  • Zeneca, a pharmaceutical company
  • Discovery, a sport utility vehicle
  • Kaliber, a low-alcohol lager
  • Gala Bingo, a chain of bingo clubs[4]

Interbrand and brand valuation

In the 1970s, the scope of Novamark's consulting work expanded to encompass, for example, brand design and brand strategy in what we now know as "branding" – a concept that was new at the time. So when Murphy opened his first overseas office, in New York City (1979), he adopted a new name for the company: Interbrand. Among the innovative services that Interbrand developed in the 1980s was brand valuation.[5] As Murphy later explained, there was "a huge buying and selling of branded-goods businesses where what was essentially being bought and sold was brands. But nobody knew how to value brands." In 1987, Interbrand announced that it had developed a proprietary methodology for brand evaluation[2] and in 1989 Murphy edited a seminal work on the subject: Brand Valuation – Establishing a true and fair view.[6] In 1993, Murphy decided to sell Interbrand, which by then had a headcount of 600 and a burgeoning international practice, to Omnicom. He stayed on at Omnicom as Interbrand's chairperson till 1996 to help with the transition.[2]

Suffolk beer and Plymouth gin

As he relinquished hands-on management of Interbrand, Murphy turned his hand to building brands himself. Pondering why it was so difficult to buy English beers and ales abroad, he realised it was because many brewers' primary marketing thrust was through the pubs they controlled in their local territories, rather than through their brands. People in England tend to drink the local ales and beers served in their local pub. In 1996, Murphy established St. Peter's, a small artisan brewery in Bungay, Suffolk, from scratch, with an international brand to suit – and without a substantial chain of controlled pub outlets.[5]

Murphy also led the acquisition from Allied Domecq of the Plymouth Gin distillery and brand in 1996 by a small group of investors.[7] He identified Plymouth Gin as an underperforming product with a famous history: the basis of the pink gin in Britain and popular in the United States even through the prohibition era.[8] At the time of acquisition, the distillery was producing some 3,000 cases of gin a year, but had capacity to make 200,000.[9] After Murphy's repackaging and PR campaign, sales had soared to 150,000 cases by 2003.[10][9]

"Cello scrotum"

Murphy was the signatory of a spoof letter (written by his wife at the time, Dr Elaine Murphy) about a "Cello scrotum" condition that the British Medical Journal (now the BMJ) published in 1974.[11]

Publications
  • John Murphy, Michael Rowe. How to design trademarks and logos. — North Light Books, 1988.
  • John Murphy. Brand Valuation – Establishing a true and fair view. — London: Hutchinson Business Books, 1989. — ISBN 0-09-174261-7.
  • John Murphy. Brand Strategy. — 1990. — ISBN 0130841617.
  • John Murphy. Brandfather: the man who invented branding. — 2017. — ISBN 9781911320357.
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References
  1. John Murphy at brunel.ac.uk Archived 19 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Interbrand Corporation at fundinguniverse.com
  3. Marketing: The name game at independent.co.uk
  4. Ashworth, Jon (23 September 1991). "Bass seeks full house in Gala opening". The Times. London – via NewsBank.
  5. In Business interview with John Murphy (audio), BBC Radio 4, September 25, 2008, from approx. 19:35
  6. Murphy, John (ed.) (1989). Brand Valuation – Establishing a true and fair view. Hutchinson Business Books, London. ISBN 0-09-174261-7.
  7. Plymouth Gin at morningadvertiser.co.uk
  8. Plymouth Gin – The Adventurer at gintime.com
  9. In Business interview with John Murphy (audio), BBC Radio 4, September 25, 2008, from approx. 24:25
  10. Revival of the fittest at http://goliath.ecnext.com
  11. "Peer reveals 'cello scrotum' hoax". BBC News. 28 January 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2017.


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