All these brands were the brainchild(ren) of John Murphy, aka the ‘Brandfather’, with his marketing and branding agency Interbrand. But who was ‘the man who invented branding’, and what other names did he come up with?
John Murphy aka the ‘Brandfather’
Interbrand
In 1974, John founded Interbrand in London, after working for tyre brand Dunlop and discovering the power of brand names and trade marks.
Before Interbrand began properly, John started under licence in the UK for a French name creation businesses Novomark. It developed and tested names, handling all the compliance issues and legal documentation for IP (intellectual property) clearance.
“Advertising agencies,” says Mr Murphy in a 2017 interview, “could only offer slogans, rather than names which could be protected as a trade mark, and an in-house competition demonstrated only that the task was no job for amateurs.” One suggestion was “Jack the Gripper”…’
Interbrand, and John, allegedly coined the term ‘branding’ and came up with the concept of brand valuation.
Branding and brand value
Through the 70s and 80s, the business evolved with offices in New York, Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo, before repositioning themselves as being in ‘branding’, as part of a marketing and business discipline. Accordingly they added market research, brand strategy consultancy, packaging and corporate identity design to their creative and trade mark legal services.
Increasingly, Murphy came to realise that they were not mere wordsmiths; they were creators of 'brands' - a scarcely-known concept in the early to mid 80s.
As Novomark (renamed in due course by John as Interbrand) grew, projects included the creation of international household brand names that we all know – such as Mondeo, Hob-Nobs, Homebase, Viagra and Punto.
Novomark was commissioned by McVitie’s to develop a name for a new biscuit. “They wanted a name which was fairly banal, boring even, but just on the right side of being protectable, so that supermarkets could not easily bring out own-brand imitations,” says Mr Murphy.
In 1988, Interbrand moved the dial even further and developed ‘brand valuation’ – the financial value and equity of a brand – causing quite a stir in marketing and advertising sectors.
Post Interbrand
After selling to Omnicom in 1994, John continued to create and evolve brands – why stop what you’re good at…? – with some standout notable brands being:
St Peter’s Brewery – living in Suffolk in the 1990s, John spotted a potential gap in the market for a British ale for the overseas market. The name St Peter’s was inspired by St Peter’s Hall at South Elmham, which was identified as a potential base for the business.
Plymouth Gin – in 1996, John and a group of shareholders bought the flagging brand and reversed the declining fortunes, gaining supermarket distribution and 20 markets abroad.
As ever, let me know what you think – had you heard of John? If not, what do you think?
Check out the brief video below for some great entrepreneur advice from John himself.
Further reading: