1

Building Your Brand For GrowthBuilding Your Brand For GrowthTuesday, July 30th, 2013 10am-11:00am (PST)

Agenda

Introduction Mike Dovbish, NCNBuilding Your Brand For Growth Gillian Christie, Founder and CEO of Christie

CommunicationsQ&A Speaker and Audience

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

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 TechnologyFunctional Foods Health & Fitness; Green ProductsHealthy Foods, BFY Foods Weight Loss

N&O Personal Care, Cosmetics Household and Pet Products

4

NCN 2013 CalendarNCN 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

NCN Deal Flow by Segment Through 06/2013

NCN Deal Flow by SegmentApparel 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

Sponsors

Law Firm Partner

Public Relations and Communications Partner

Investment Banking Partner

Life Science Partner

Digital Media Partner

Government Trade Partner

7

Thank You to Our Cornerstone Investors

SHERBROOKE CAPITAL

Consumer Care

8

University Partners (new in 2013)

Building Your Brand for Growth:Engaging Your Ecosystem through Effective

Branding and Communications

Presented by:Gillian Christie

Founder & CEOgillian@christiecomm.com

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

ChristieCommunications has over 20 years of successful Branding, PR, Market Research, Advertising and Marketing experience in thegreen, 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

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.

The Ecosystems We Know

The Ecosystems We Know

The Ecosystems We Know

The Ecosystems We Live In

The Ecosystems We Live In

The Ecosystems We Live In

The Ecosystems We Live In

“Noise” in the Ecosystem

“Noise” in the Ecosystem

“Noise” in the Ecosystem

How Do You Reach Your Ecosystem?

How Do You Reach Your Ecosystem?

How Do You Reach Your Ecosystem?

How Do You Reach Your Ecosystem?

How is Your Company Known? Building for Growth.

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?

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.

Building Your Brand for Growth

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Building Your Brand: Monitor Indicators…Listen

• Get feedback. • Ask questions.• Do not assume.• Be adaptable. • Be humble.

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.

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.

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.

Building Your Brand for GrowthGoal: 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.

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

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?

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

Brand Development & Management: Redd Remedies

Brand Development & Management: AIDP

Brand Development & Management: Rhizogen

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

And Most Importantly…

Thank you for your time, attention and dedication to building brands that

change lives!

Gillian ChristieFounder & CEO

gillian@christiecomm.com805-969-3744