NEW YORK (April 25, 2007) — AlixPartners LLP, the global corporate-advisory firm, today released its inaugural 2007 AlixPartners Brand Power Index^SM. This index, based on an AlixPartners survey conducted in the fall of 2006 with more than 5,000 consumers in the U.S., has broad-reaching ramifications for branded consumer goods (CG) companies as well as retailers and financial players that buy, sell or trade in CG companies. The survey pinpointed consumer expectations in 11 key CG categories, and also examined at which retailers customers prefer to shop, while the AlixPartners Brand Power Index^SM, derived from that information, determines not just the current state of dozens of given brands in each category but, importantly, also predicts the direction each of the brands studied is heading in the future.

The AlixPartners Brand Power Index^SM draws a clear distinction between mere popularity, which a brand can achieve temporarily through discounting, etc., and true brand power, which the index measures via a sophisticated consumer trust-versus-distrust formula. Of the publicly held CG companies that clearly exceeded consumer expectations as defined by this analysis, collective average market capitalization increased 124 percent from January 2004 to January 2007, versus an increase of just 15 percent for those publicly held companies that clearly did not meet consumer expectations.

The AlixPartners Brand Power Index^SM found that the ten most powerful brands today are:

1. Sony (NYSE-SNE)
2. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE-JNJ)
3. Kraft (NYSE-KFT)
4. Procter & Gamble (NYSE-PG)
5. Campbell’s (NYSE-CPB)
6. Toyota (NYSE-TM)
7. Tylenol
8. Dell (NasdaqGS-DELL)
9. General Mills (NYSE-GIS)
10. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE-HPQ)

Of note, several mega-brands such as Coca Cola (Nasdaq-COKE), Pepsi NYSE-PBG), tied for 11^th, and Nike (NYSE-NKE), at 14^th did not crack the top 10 under this new methodology.

“While Nike was, by far, the most frequently mentioned name when consumers were asked to select any favorite brand, the ratio of consumers who trust Nike—both the brand and the company—to those who distrust it lowered its final score,” said Fred Crawford, a managing director with AlixPartners and a leading expert on consumer behavior who also oversees the AlixPartners Consumer Sentiment Index^SM.  “On the other hand, other great brands such as Newman’s Own [33^rd], Ben & Jerry’s [41^st] and 3M [86^th] have tremendous trust among consumers, but their penetration in the marketplace remains quite low.”

Other well-known brands surveyed, often with surprising results, include Advil, Adidas (NQB-ADDYY), Apple (Nasdaq-AAPL), Budweiser, Campbell’s, Chevrolet, Coke, Converse, Coors (NYSE-TAP), Dell, Dove, Ford (NYSE-F), Gap (NYSE-GPS), Gateway (NYSE- GTW), General Electric (NYSE-GE), Hewlett-Packard, Hyundai (HYMLF.PK), Kia (KIMTF.PK), Kmart, Levi’s, New Balance, Nike, Pepsi, Reebok (REE.SG), SC Johnson , 7 Up, Sony, Tylenol, Toyota, Whirlpool (NYSE-WHR) and Vicks. Store brands and private-label brands were also covered, as were corporate brands.

The AlixPartners research shows that consumers are most concerned about where and how a brand is sold, how it is priced and whether it performs as claimed, but generally not so much about having the very best or most innovative product. “Clearly, as product quality has increased generally and as consumers’ lives have become even more hectic, brand placement, brand availability and consistently honest pricing, along with the ability to get help when needed from a real, live human, are becoming increasingly more important,” said Crawford.

In addition, the research finds that consumers largely do not listen to manufacturers’ claims about their brands. “Only 6 percent of consumers say they utilize manufacturers to get information about products,” noted Crawford. “The research clearly highlights the credibility gap many CG companies have.”

By the same token, Crawford also noted the seismic effect the Internet is having on brands, and on shopping. “Our research finds that 22 percent of consumers find the Internet to be a source of credible information, and that the Net is the second-most used source today, only behind word-of-mouth. For CG companies still spending big money on ‘old-media’ marketing and advertising, this research should be a real wakeup call.”

In terms of retailers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE-WMT) dominated, as it was selected as the most popular place to shop in six of the 11 product categories. However, “Wal-Mart absolutely got hammered by consumers on both its product and service in both the clothing and home technology segments,” said Crawford, “and also received low grades on access, or “store shopability,” in all categories. Based on these scores, it seems clear that a large part of Wal-Mart’s recent struggles can be traced to poor execution in home tech and casual clothing, along with growing consumer frustration about how difficult Wal-Mart stores are to shop. By contrast, JC Penney’s (NYSE-JCP) scores are going very much in the right direction.”

An AlixPartners study containing the 2007 AlixPartners Brand Power Index^SM can be found at www.alixpartners.com.

About AlixPartners
AlixPartners is a global consulting, restructuring and financial advisory firm. The AlixPartners’ “one-stop-shop” suite of services range from operational performance improvement and financial restructuring across all major corporate disciplines (manufacturing, supply chain, IT, working capital, sales & marketing, etc.) to financial advisory services (including financial reporting, corporate governance and investigations) to restructuring and claims management. The firm has offices in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Düsseldorf, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Munich, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai and Tokyo, and affiliates in Sao Paulo and Melbourne. It is on the Web at www.alixpartners.com.