John Murphy (branding consultant)
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John Matthew Murphy (born 1944,
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
) is a British branding consultant who pioneered the art of
brand valuation Brand valuation is the process of estimating the total financial value of a brand. A conflict of interest exists if those who value a brand were also involved in its creation. The ISO 10668 standard specifies six key requirements for the process of ...
, that is, measuring the accounting value of a company's brands as
assets In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can ...
, and in so doing, he stimulated the development of branding as an aspect of business. Murphy founded Interbrand, one of the first branding consultancies, and named many familiar brands.


Interbrand and brand valuation

In London in 1974, Murphy launched Novamark, a small company specialising in product naming and in trade mark registrations. In the 1970s, the scope of Novamark's consulting work expanded to encompass brand design and strategy. In 1979, when Murphy opened his first overseas office in New York, he adopted the name Interbrand. Among the concepts that Interbrand developed in the 1980s was brand valuation. 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 Business'' interview with John Murphy (audio), BBC Radio 4, September 25, 2008, from approx. 19:35
Retrieved 6 September 2021
In 1987, Interbrand announced that it had developed a proprietary methodology for brand evaluation and in 1989 Murphy edited a work on the subject: ''Brand Valuation – Establishing a true and fair view''. In 1993, Murphy decided to sell Interbrand, which by then had a headcount of 600 and a burgeoning international practice, to
Omnicom Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City. Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer re ...
. He stayed on at Omnicom as Interbrand's chairperson till 1996 to help with the transition. Brand names that have been attributed to being born out of Murphy's efforts during this time include: *
Prestel Prestel (abbrev. from press telephone), the brand name for the UK Post Office Telecommunications's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. It achieved a maxim ...
, the UK Post Office videotex service * British Telecom, then part of the Post Office, subsequently BT *
Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...
, a range of cars *
HobNob Hobnobs (sometimes stylized as HobNobs) is the brand name of a commercial biscuit. They are made from rolled oats, are similar to a Flapjack (oat bar), flapjack-digestive biscuit hybrid, and are among the most popular British and Irish biscuits ...
, a biscuit *
Homebase Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre with stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the company was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006, un ...
, a chain of home improvement stores and garden centres *
Prozac Fluoxetine, sold under the brand names Prozac and Sarafem, among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used for the treatment of major depressive disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorde ...
, an antidepressant drug * Slice, a range soft drinks *
Zeneca Zeneca (officially Zeneca Group PLC) was a British multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was formed in June 1993 by the demerger of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of Imperial Che ...
, a pharmaceutical company *
Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...
, a sport utility vehicle * Kaliber, a low-alcohol lager *
Gala Bingo Gala Bingo is an online bingo and casino offering under the ownership of Entain. Gala Bingo was created in 1991 as a division of Bass plc. It later became an independent company, and then became the Gala Coral Group after acquiring Coral Eur ...
, a chain of bingo clubs


Suffolk beer and Plymouth gin

After Interbrand, Murphy turned his hand to building brands himself. Looking at how
English brewers English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
struggled to market themselves abroad due to their reliance on marketing through local
pubs A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
, he decided to try the opposite, and base a brewery around brand projection. In 1996, Murphy established St. Peter's, a small artisan brewery in
Bungay, Suffolk Bungay () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . It lies in the Waveney Valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at the neck of a ...
, from scratch, without a substantial chain of controlled pub outlets, marketing it both locally and internationally. Murphy also led the acquisition from
Allied Domecq Allied Domecq PLC was an international company, headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom, that operated spirits, wine, and quick service restaurant businesses. It was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent but has been acquired by Pernod Ricard. Th ...
of the
Plymouth Gin Plymouth Gin is a style and brand of gin that has been distilled on the same premises on the Barbican in Plymouth, Devon, since 1793. The site of production, the Plymouth Gin Distillery, was built in 1431 and is reputed to have once been a mo ...
distillery and brand in 1996 by a small group of investors, betting on the history of the drink as the basis of the pink gin in Britain and a
prohibition era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic be ...
-beating product in the US. At the time of acquisition, the distillery was producing some 3,000 cases of gin a year, but had capacity to make 200,000. After Murphy's repackaging and PR campaign, sales had increased to 150,000 cases by 2003.''In Business'' interview with John Murphy (audio), BBC Radio 4, September 25, 2008, from approx. 24:25
Retrieved 6 September 2021


Honors

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June ...
admitted Murphy to the honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences in 2001.


"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 ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...
'') published in 1974.


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. — . * John Murphy. Brand Strategy. — 1990. — . * Susannah Hart, John Murphy (editors). Brands – The new wealth creators. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998 — * John Murphy. Brandfather: the man who invented branding. — 2017. — .


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, John 1944 births Living people British businesspeople Branding consultants Brand valuation Spouses of life peers