Brandlogic to Present Inaugural Sustainability Leadership Report in London October Fourth

WILTON, Connecticut, August 25, 2011 -

- Perceived performance exceeds actual for 66 of 100 firms

Full-service brand consulting firm, Brandlogic, in partnership with CRD Analytics, a leading provider of sustainability investment analytics that powers the NASDAQ CRD Global Sustainability Index (QCRD), recently released the inaugural version of the “Sustainability Leadership Report: Measuring Perception vs. Reality.” This report, Brandlogic’s latest contribution to ideas that drive performance, is a quantitative analysis of actual vs. perceived performance around environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors for 100 leading companies in 2011.

Supported by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), the report is available for immediate download at www.brandlogic.com/sustainability and will be discussed by James Cerruti, Brandlogic’s senior partner of strategy & research, at London’s Enhanced ESG Analysis Conference on October 4, 2011 at 5:30pm at IET London: Savoy Place.

Collectively, the 100 companies listed in the study represent 20 percent of total global market capitalization and 40 percent of the value of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.  European companies analyzed include AstraZeneca, BP, Citibank, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, Tesco and UBS, among others. As part of the research, the 100 global companies were organized into a Sustainability IQ Matrix™ of four quadrants - Leaders, Laggards, Promoters and Challengers - based on a cross-reference of real versus perceived scores. BP, for example, is listed as a “Challenger,” where reality exceeds perception (56.4 versus 38.3), an indication that the company may be getting less credit than deserved for its ESG performance. According to Cerruti, “There is an opportunity for BP, given that its reality is higher than the perception. The company should be asking, ‘how can we narrow the gap?’ as this could have an impact on the brand, corporate and operational strategy.”

One of the larger findings from the report was the vast number of firms - 66 in total - whose perceived performance exceeds their actual performance. For example, Tesco, just like its American competitor Walmart, was found to have greater perceived sustainability than what was found in reality.

Perceptual information was derived from a Brandlogic global research study conducted in 2011, which included an even mix from 2,400 of the three “most attentive” segments: supply chain managers, investment professionals and graduating college and university students, all located in the U.K., U.S., Germany, Japan, India and China. CRD Analytics’ SmartView™ platform was used to generate the actual performance data, using quantitative and qualitative data from 175 performance metrics and five key performance indicators within each ESG area.

“At its heart, the report is a leadership tool that frames the entire picture of sustainability - environmental factors, social factors and governance factors - in an objective, fact-based context,” said Hampton Bridwell, Brandlogic’s managing partner and CEO. “This study utilizes the best sustainability data and takes into account thoughts from the companies’ most attentive stakeholders - individuals in unique positions to make investment decisions, see things through the supply chain or contemplate and compare employment opportunities.”

MORE ABOUT BRANDLOGIC & CRD ANALYTICS:

Brandlogic® is a leading brand consultancy, offering a full range of services including brand research, strategy, design, digital, communications, employee engagement and sustainability reporting. A 100 percent employee-owned firm, the firm has a 35+ year history of serving complex, global organizations to solve their most pressing business and branding challenges. For more information about Brandlogic, visit www.brandlogic.com.

CRD Analytics is a leading provider of independent sustainability investment analytics. Using its proprietary SmartView™ 360 Platform, CRD Analytics empowers its clients with actionable and performance-driven information distilled from large sets of complex data including 200 financial, environmental, social, governance, brand perception and reputational risk. At the core are the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G3.1 indicators. CRD Analytics partners with its investment clients to construct proprietary index-based products - Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), separately managed accounts, mutual funds and Unit Investment Trusts (UITs). For more information about CRD Analytics, go to www.crdanalytics.com

James Cerruti will be available for media appointments the week of October 3 in the United Kingdom. To arrange an interview, please contact Doreen Clark at +1-651-789-1269 or Doreen@Kohnstamm.com.

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