Branding can be your secret weapon to increase sales, establish your products and company as the market leaders and attract funding and top talent. Learn how to build your brand for growth, funding, credibility, attracting the best employees, and lucrative exit.

1. BRANDING
A Secret Weapon in
Funding, Growth & Exit
Advancing the Success of Your Company
John Stuppy, MBA, Ph.D.
john@edumetrix.com
EDUMETRIX INC.
Former president TutorVista.com
www.edumetrix.com / JohnStuppy.com
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2. Are you looking to…
1. Raise money
2. Attract the best employees
3. Build your business to the best exit
4. Grow & achieve segment leadership
…for your company?
Consider maximizing & leveraging your
company brand to achieve your goals.
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3. Why Brand?
 Lots of competition
 Hard for consumer to differentiate
 Need to attract the best employees
 Tough financial climate today
 “5 is the new 12” (valuation multiple)
 Some categories have leverage
 High emotion is key to branding
 Eg. education brands can draw support
Build your brand. Improve your company’s
v10-6-09
prospects for funding, growth and exit.
Stuppy: Branding 3

4. Does Branding Work?
 In The NY Times article “Maybe It's Time to Rethink The
Cost of College Prep” (2/28/2009)
 “National companies like Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions,
the Princeton Review, Sylvan Learning and TutorVista.com,
offer a variety of offline and online tutoring options at a wide
range of prices.”
 As the former president of TutorVista.com, I led an
inexpensive marketing and promotion campaign of news
and carefully planned events to capture the hearts and
minds of TV producers, top VC companies, consumers and
the press. This valuable service and brand-building has
made TutorVista worthy of mention in respected print and
television news worldwide.
 TutorVista continues to be highlighted today alongside
market leading companies that have been in business 35-
60 years and spend $40M or more a year on advertising.
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5. TutorVista.com has been featured in
news & print to over 80 million people
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6. “…every brand has a unique claim to
fame – an unmatched value…find
the One Thing the brand stands for at
its very core and surround that thing
with reason and emotion.”
-- Be The Brand, David Martin
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7. Building Your Brand
 Stand out & stand for something
 Unique
 Desirable
 Differentiate
 Move out in front of the pack
 Be seen in right light by the right people
Must you advertise to build a brand?
 NO! You can dominate a category on a modest
budget and that’s the focus of this slide
deck…Be one of the Big Dogs with less than a
Coca-Cola or McDonald’s budget!
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8. To build a brand, you must know the
essence of your company/product*
 Who are your consumers? Lifestyle profiles?
Hopes & fears, pleasures and dislikes, fads?
 What do people want from products in
category? Must be relevant!
 Likes/dislikes about the competition?
 What rational & emotional needs can we
meet that others have not met? What will
make a meaningful difference?
 How, where, with whom & when used?
 How used in future? Trends we can ride?
*Be The Brand, David Martin
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9. And – It’s Key – Brands Must…
 Make an emotional connection with
 Consumers
 Employees
 Funders
 Media/industry leaders
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10. Brand Awareness
In addition to name retention, your brand
must include recall of:
1. What you do
2. The benefit of what you do
3. What you stand for
Awareness is the first stage of selling
Needs + Awareness + Emotion  Desire  Action
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11. Branding Checklist
 Identify & understand your
 Core Identity
 Mission (drawn from customer insight)
 Customer segment(s)
 Differentiated position/defining benefit
 Marketing strategy
 Customer need, expectation, experience
 Emotional pay-off
 Talk to customers & employees
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12. Branding Ideas
 Awareness
 Signs/posters, Events, Speeches, Conferences,
Announcements, Postcards, Free pilot
programs, Grants
 Invite media; engage lobbyists
 Be relevant, interesting & desirable
 Establish expertise
 Real success stories, Growth, Results, Benefits,
Wow-factor (innovation) as well as Now-factor
(solutions are here today/relevant)
 Stake your claim, sell, retain & refer
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13. Use This Template to Compose Your
Brand Positioning Statement
 To the (market target), (brand name), is
the brand of (frame of reference) with
(benefits and attributes) that (sustainable
and emotional point of difference).*
 Eg. To parents worried about their child’s
academic success, TutorVista.com, is the
brand of online tutoring that delivers the
highest quality, most affordable and
convenient tutoring that will help your
child compete and succeed in school.
*Be The Brand, David Martin
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14. The Best Brands Drive Emotions*
Some Key Emotions for Brands are:
 Love of offspring (9.1 on a 10-point scale)
 Parental affection (8.9)
 Ambition (8.6)
 Fear, Safety (7.8)
 Economy (7.5)
 Curiosity (7.5)
 Efficiency (7.3)
 Competition (7.3)
 Social Distinction (6.9)
*Psychology in Advertising, Albert Poffenberger
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15. Use branding to get a leg up
 Establish coherent focus
 Align employees around this focus
 Drive home this message for media,
employees, customers & investors
so all know what you stand for
 Stir your customers’ emotions
 Differentiate and stake your claim
 Deliver on your brand’s promise
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16. A rising tide floats all boats
 If yours can be “the brand” and represent
all that’s good about your product or
service niche all by yourself, GREAT!
 If not, or if your category has political or
other obstacles working against it,
consider working with competitors to
promote and strengthen your category
 BUT…be sure to keep differentiated advantages
in mind so you can break away from the pack
and establish the value of your own brand
when there’s enough “water in the bay.”
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17. What’s next?
 Be True To Your -----------
School
BRAND !!!
 Deliver on your promise/potential
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18. John Stuppy background…
 EDUMETRIX, Principal
 Finds education technology products & services that work
 Secure the capital and provide the leadership companies
need to replicate, scale and dominate their market.
 Areas of expertise: funding, technology, startup,
marketing, sales, operations, e-learning, branding, student
achievement, test-prep, face-to-face & online tutoring,
charter schools, instructional supervision, professional
development.
 TutorVista, President
 Grew company 825%/year for 2 years to serve 500,000
students; Raised $36M from Sequoia and other top VC’s
 Featured/interviewed on ABC, NBC, CBS & Fox News, NBC
Today Show; time magazine and in The NY Times,
The Wall Street Journal & SF Chronicle.
 Sold a stake to Pearson
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