1. A W HITE PAPER FOR MARKET LEADERS T HE 2 0 0 9 H O U S T O N VALUE LANGUAGE STUDY Brandwave.netWave your brand.

2. 2010 Brandwave. All rights reserved.Whats So Special About Your Little Corporation? Huh?Brandwave is in the business of communicating value, so its not surprising we would launch a search to document the differentiating value language communicated by some of Houstons major corporations. What is surprising is how few meaningful value promises we actually found. 3. In our 2009 year-end Value Language Another 25 companies, or 22%, do so only In this economy, shouldnt we Study, a visual audit of the web sites of in the most cursory manner, leaving only 113 Houston-based public corporations,20 firms, or about 18% who make a cleartry a little harder? we found that 68 companies, or 60%, value statement on their home pages. make no attempt whatsoever to speak to site visitors from a standpoint of In other words, only 18% made a visible differentiated brand value. effort to express what makes them special. Our methodology was simple: WeZERO indicated there was no valueAll told, 113 Houston conducted a superficial visual review oflanguage evident at all. ONE indicated some attempt at presenting value, andcorporations scored a the primary home pages of each of the companies in the study group and ratedTWO represented the presence of clearcumulative total of only 66 them on a scale from 0 to 2.and meaningful value language. points using our 0-1-2 scale. Before you get hung up on the word superficial, bear in mind that a superficial review is all most stakeholders do before they move on to something else. And if your differentiating value promise is not obvious at a cursory glance, it doesnt get through. Period. 4. ACR Group 0DXP Enterprises 0 Lyondell Chemical Co.0 Service Corp. International 2 Adams Resources & Energy1Edge Petroleum Corp.0 Marathon Oil Corp. 1 Smith International 0 Administaff 2EGL (CEVA)0 McDermott International0 Southern Union Co.0 Allis-Chalmers Energy 1Enbridge Energy Partners0 Mens Wearhouse 2 Southwestern Energy Co. 0 American National 0Englobal Corp.2 Meridian Resource Corp.0 Stage Stores0 InsuranceEnterprise Products 0 MetroCorp Bancshares 2 Sterling Bancshares 0 AmREIT2PartnersMexican Restaurants1 Sterling Construction Co. 0 Anadarko Petroleum Corp.2EOG Resources 0Mitcham Industries 0 Stewart & Stevenson 1 Apache Corp 0ExpressJet Holdings 1ServicesNabors Industries1 Atwood Oceanics 0Flotek Industries 0Stewart Information 2Natco Group1 Services Baker Hughes0FMC Technologies1National Oilwell Varco 0 Swift Energy Co.0 Benchmark Electronics 1Friedman Industries 0Natural Resource Partners0 Sysco Corp. 1 BJ Services Co. 1Frontier Oil Corp.0Nevada Gold & Casinos2 T-3 Energy Services 0 BMC Software2Genesis Energy0Newfield Exploration 0 Team0 Boots & Coots 0Group 1 Automotive0 InternationalNoble Corp.0 Teppco Partners 0GulfMark Offshore 1 Bristow Group 1Noble Energy 0 Tetra Technologies0Halliburton Co. 2 Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. 0Oceaneering International0 Transocean1Harvest Natural Resources 0 Camden Property Trust 2Oil States International 0 US Concrete 2HCC Insurance Holdings0 Cameron International 1OYO Geospace Corp. 0 US Physical Therapy 0 Corp.Helix Energy Solutions0Group Parker Drilling Co.0 Ultra Petroleum Corp. 0 Carrizo Oil & Gas 0Plains All American1Houston Exploration Co. 0Universal Compression 0 CenterPoint Energy2Pipeline HoldingsHydril Co.0 Comsys IT Partners2Powell Industries1 Vaalco Energy 0ICO 0 ConocoPhillips1Pride International0 Waste Management2Imperial Sugar Co.2 Consolidated Graphics 0Prosperity Bancshares0 WCA Waste Corp. 0Input/Output0 Cooper Industries 0Quanex Corp. 1 Weatherford International 2Kinder Morgan 0 Copano Energy 0Quanta Services0 Weingarten Realty 2Kirby Corp. 0Investors Cornell Cos.0Ricks Cabaret 1KMG Chemicals 1 InternationalWestlake Chemical Corp. 0 Diamond Offshore Drilling 2Landrys Restaurants1 Rowan Cos. 0 W-H Energy Services 0 Dril-Quip 0Lubys2 Sanders Morris Harris1Group How each of the 113 companies we surveyed compared on our simple scale: 0 = No Discernable Value Language 1 = Minimal Value Language 2 = Effective Value Language 5. 68 of the 133 companies we surveyed use no Value Language at all. Instead, they often simply fill in the blanks in a boilerplate that goes something like this: (Company Name) is a (adjective) provider of (adjective) (product) in the (geographic) (industry segment) market. In other words, (Houston Co.) is a (leading) provider of (high-end) (tools) in the (global) (oil and gas) market. This is not Value Language. Its pure description, and not very compelling at that. 6. We then reviewed a control group of 25Guess what? In other words, leading brands of the worlds most popular brands, and measured them using the same criteria.Every one of them scored a 2. are good at expressing value.(Whod have thought?) 7. The key to building strong corporate At the heart of every enterprise is some Value Language clearly conveys value, brands is successful expression of the driving vision - some unique value promise presents it from the standpoint of the value that differentiates them.separating it from the competition, whichcustomer, and does so in a way that clearlycan be used to create a sustainabledifferentiates it. Descriptions of featurescompetitive advantage. and benefits do not constitute value language. We think there are two key reasons 1. A tendency to delegate responsibility for 2. The curse of knowledge. some companies dont use effective the brand to people who lack the authority Value Language:to do anything about it. Responsibility for the brand resides with the CEO. Only the CEO can articulate and drive the vision in a way that reaches all the organizations constituents. But sometimes, the CEO is such an expert on his own company, he doesnt see that what is clear to him can go right above the heads of his most important constituents, usually his customers. 8. To identify areas where value language The scope of the Value Language Assessment depends on the can be improved, and help management focus brand assets in a single direction,size and reach of the organization, but the basic premise remains Brandwave developed a protocol we call the same no matter what: Once management has a clear picture the Value Language Assessment.of the clarity and consistency with which its core value promiseis expressed and delivered, it can begin to control how it is VLA is a thorough analysis of how an organizations value promise is articulatedexperienced. through its identity program, marketing materials and corporate communications.CEOs who ignore the value language spoken by their organizations Its purpose is to answer five driving questions:do so at their peril. But with the Value Language Assessmentfrom Brandwave, smart leaders can have a greater impact on the Is the organization actually focused aroundperformance of their brands. a core value promise (youd be surpirsed how many arent)?To learn more about our 2009 Value Language Study, or to Is the promise communicated clearly andschedule a Value Language Assessment in your organization, visit persuasively in a way that differentiates it www.brandwave.net today. from all other promises?Does the visual language support the written narrative?Is it consistently expressed across all touchpoints?Does it resonate with constituents? 9. Brandwave: A coactive brand lab We provide:web presencewww.brandwave.net dedicated to creating value, moving brand strategy social media281.529.5603 markets and bringing ideas to life. design promotions marketingpress relations advertisingresearch