NCN and NCN Communications Partner Christie Communications present a free educational interactive conference call to provide results-oriented, actionable tools to most effectively build your brand for growth. Join us for dynamic, innovative, proven insights to engage your ecosystem and maximize growth from industry veteran Gillian Christie, Founder & CEO of Christie Communications, who has built iconic brands in the natural products industry and beyond for more than 30 years. This program is designed for industry leaders and high growth companies with the goal of introducing new communication tools that achieve sales results, reduce marketing results and deepen your engagement with consumers, investors, retailers, brokers, suppliers and more.

1. 1
Building Your Brand For GrowthBuilding Your Brand For Growth
Tuesday, July 30th, 2013 10am-11:00am (PST)
Agenda
Introduction Mike Dovbish, NCN
Building Your Brand For Growth Gillian Christie, Founder and CEO of Christie
Communications
Q&A Speaker and Audience

2. 2
Nutrition Capital Network Mission
• The mission of Nutrition Capital Network (NCN) is to:
– facilitate the financing and partnering process for small and medium-sized
companies
– introduce investors to the next generation of successful brands and
technologies in the nutrition, health & wellness, natural/organic and green
product industries.
– facilitating capital flow for the betterment of business and society at large.
• NCN accomplishes this mission by:
– creating a series of events and virtual tools to connect companies and
investors

3. 3
NCN’s Focus
Companies in the nutrition and health &
wellness industry across the value chain
including the following sectors:
Dietary Supplements: VMS,
H&B, Sports, LMRs
Ingredients, Medical Foods,
Technology for OTC/Pharma
Natural & Organic Foods H&W Enabling Technology
Functional Foods Health & Fitness; Green Products
Healthy Foods, BFY Foods
Weight Loss
N&O Personal Care, Cosmetics
Household and Pet Products

4. 4
NCN 2013 Calendar
NCN Seminar at Expo East - Baltimore
• September 25, 2013; 11-12 Pitch Slam; 2-3.15; 3.30-5pm sessions
NCN XIII Fall Meeting, San Francisco
• October 28-29, 2013: 20-22 Companies; 70-80 Investors
NCN at Supply Side West: Las Vegas
• November 13, 2013: 10-12 Cos. (Ingredients/Tech); 50-60 Investors

5. 5
NCN Deal Flow by Segment
Through 06/2013
NCN Deal Flow by Segment
Apparel and textiles 7 0.5%
Functional Beverages 121 8.1%
Functional Foods 74 5.0%
Ingredients 223 15.0%
Media 19 1.3%
Medical Foods 10 0.7%
Natural & Organic Foods 469 31.5%
Natural Personal Care & Household/OTC 150 10.1%
Packaging 28 1.9%
Retail & Service 87 5.8%
Supplements 207 13.9%
Technology 70 4.7%
Fitness 5 0.3%
Green Products 6 0.4%
Education 3 0.2%
Lawn and Garden 2 0.1%
OTC 9 0.6%
Total 1490 100%
Through 6/2013

6. 6
Sponsors
Law Firm Partner
Public Relations and
Communications Partner
Investment Banking Partner
Life Science Partner
Digital Media Partner
Government Trade Partner

7. 7
Thank You to Our Cornerstone Investors
SHERBROOKE
CAPITAL
Consumer Care

8. 8
University Partners (new in 2013)

9. Building Your Brand for Growth:
Engaging Your Ecosystem through Effective
Branding and Communications
Presented by:
Gillian Christie
Founder & CEO
gillian@christiecomm.com

10. A product is something that can be made
in a factory; a brand is something that is
bought by the customer. A product can be
copied by a competitor; a brand is unique.
A product can be quickly outdated; a
successful brand is timeless.
Stephen King, Author

11. ChristieCommunications has over 20 years of successful Branding,
PR, Market Research, Advertising and Marketing experience in the
green, health and wellness, gourmet, natural products, LOHAS,
technology, and CPG sectors.
ChristieCommunications identifies and accomplishes the goals of
ethical companies worldwide, expanding their impact and
strengthening their bottom line through integrated, effective branding
and communication services.
ChristieCommunications’ highly experienced teams of expert brand
builders apply our Organic Marketing™ approach - a precise and
proprietary technology that obtains maximum results with the
minimum use of resources – to build brand awareness and demand
in B2B and B2C channels with an outstanding track record.
Additionally, Gillian Christie was recently awarded as one of the Top
100 Women Taking the Lead to Save our Planet as well as the
prestigious Joe Nida Entrepreneurial Spirit Award for the
agency’s pioneering efforts in the field of Clean Business™ and the
Spirit of Small Business Award for Woman-Owned Business.
Meet ChristieCommunications

12. What is an Ecosystem?
Eco: From Greek Oikos meaning “house.”
System: From Greek Synistarian meaning
“bring together.”
Ecosystem: The system of ecological
relationships upon which life of any
particular living organism is based. An
ecosystem includes such factors as food
supply, weather, and natural enemies.

13. The Ecosystems We Know

14. The Ecosystems We Know

15. The Ecosystems We Know

16. The Ecosystems We Live In

17. The Ecosystems We Live In

18. The Ecosystems We Live In

19. The Ecosystems We Live In

20. “Noise” in the Ecosystem

21. “Noise” in the Ecosystem

22. “Noise” in the Ecosystem

23. How Do You Reach Your Ecosystem?

24. How Do You Reach Your Ecosystem?

25. How Do You Reach Your Ecosystem?

26. How Do You Reach Your Ecosystem?

27. How is Your Company Known? Building
for Growth.

28. Engaging Your Ecosystem to Create Your
Success
• Who is in your ecosystem? (customers,
investors, partners, employees,
distributors, brokers, retailers,
community partners…)
• How do you engage them in creating
your success?
• What has worked?
• More importantly, what hasn’t worked?
Lessons learned?
• Ideas for how to engage more
effectively?

29. From Ecosystem to Your Brand:
Building Your Brand for Growth
Brand: A set of perceptions and images
that represent a company, product or
service. While many people refer to a brand
as a logo, tag line or audio jingle, a brand is
actually much larger. A brand is the
essence or promise of what will be
delivered or experienced – from how you
answer your phones to your POS collateral,
your sales presentations to your packaging.

30. Building Your Brand for Growth

31. Building Your Brand:
Know Your Species…Understand Who
You Are
• Define your Dream, Values, and Purposes.
• Integrate these consistently into growth
strategies, distribution, branding, and
marketing.

32. Building Your Brand:
Understand Your Food Web…Know &
Respect Your Audiences
• Get to know your audience: Market research,
market research, market research, grassroots
outreach, talk with customers, retailers and
brokers.
• Find out what they need and want to most
effectively build brand awareness.
• Use the results to develop an effective
strategy.

33. Building Your Brand:
Avoid Erosion…Be Consistent
• Your brand is more than your logo, it is every
interaction with your company from the
person who answers the phone to packaging,
website to sales.
• Value your customers and integrate them into
the messaging. Make it personal.

34. Building Your Brand:
Create Biological Magnification of Your Values
• Enable your values to become more
concentrated in each successive stage up the
food web.
• Integrate your values and purpose into your
communications, branding, collateral.
• Communicate out of authenticity.
• Do not dilute your message.

35. Building Your Brand:
Avoid Mental Pollution…Market Organically
• Do not waste resources – this includes
people’s attention.
• Define your message, key media, and
outreach channels precisely.
• Marketing is a philosophy – maintain integrity,
messaging, substantiation, relevancy, and
content.

36. Building Your Brand:
Protect Your Brand’s Habitat, Don’t Inundate
• Educate target audiences through researched
and substantiated information.
• Don’t barrage with overwhelming data and
scare tactics.
• Fear does not create long-term loyalty.

37. Building Your Brand:
Stimulate Photosynthesis of Your Marketing,
Tailor Your Messaging
• Customize your messaging based on specific
personal, logical, and emotional profiles.
• Keep communications relevant to target
audiences.

38. Building Your Brand:
Monitor Indicators…Listen
• Get feedback.
• Ask questions.
• Do not assume.
• Be adaptable.
• Be humble.

39. Building Your Brand:
Build Your Ecosystem & Community
• Know them. Understand each part of your
ecosystem.
• Stay in touch.
• Be interested in them.
• Cooperate with aligned companies and
organizations.
• Build opportunities for interaction through
events, social media, strong public relations
efforts.

40. Building Your Brand:
Create Acclimation…Be Adaptable & Pivot
• Know that change is inevitable.
• Embrace challenges and transform them into
success.
• Find mentors and advisors to help you
navigate.
• Enjoy the process.

41. Building Your Brand:
Persevere
• Success takes persistence, hard work, and
maintaining your dream and values.
• Build trust and confidence.
• Surpass expectations.
• Maintain your sense of humor.

42. Building Your Brand for Growth
Goal: A brand that transcends the direct product
experience and speaks directly to the consumer’s
identity and self awareness in a powerful,
consistent manner, creating lasting loyalty and
increased sales.

43. Building Your Brand for Growth
Identify common factors of successful, growth
brands and their ecosystem engagement.

44. Building Your Brand for Growth:
Name three brands that demonstrate a successful
ecosystem approach to branding:
• What brands?
• Do you purchase them?
• Why or why not?
• Have they grown consistently?
• Why or why not?

45. Building Your Brand Based in Meaning &
Values
We work with you to create powerful, effective
branding that resonates with your customers to
create understanding and demand for your products
while aligning with your core philosophies, values
and goals.
Before After

46. Brand Development & Management: Redd Remedies

47. Brand Development & Management: AIDP

48. Brand Development & Management: Rhizogen

49. It had long since come to my attention
that people of accomplishment rarely
sat back and let things happen to
them. They went out and happened
to things.
Leonardo da Vinci
Do you know what my favorite
renewable fuel is?
An ecosystem for innovation.
Thomas Friedman
There is a deep interconnectedness of
all life on earth, from the tiniest
organisms, to the largest
ecosystems, and absolutely between
each person.
Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason

50. And Most Importantly…

51. Thank you for your time, attention and
dedication to building brands that
change lives!
Gillian Christie
Founder & CEO
gillian@christiecomm.com
805-969-3744