Mercatus+
Mercatus+ is an international branding agency with offices on four continents. Founded in London in 1992 as MSN, it changed to Brand Mercatus in 2003. It employs brand directors, managers and consultants to work with brand owners and custodians to deliver branding solutions. The agency owns proprietary tools such as a brand DNA programme called the Mercatus Brand Foundation System. It also has units that provide services in graphic design, advertising, public relations, publishing, printing and media buying. Its public relations division was known as Reputation Mercatus.
Mercatus is the Latin word for market, trade, business, commerce or place of business, and is the root for English words such as market, marketing, merchant, merchandise and mercantile.
In 2005, the agency was drawn into the media spotlight when a former managing director of KFC in Malaysia questioned the appointment of Brand Mercatus as KFC's public relations agent. Brand Mercatus had distributed a press release on behalf of KFC announcing the suspension of the director. The agency maintained that it was merely providing a news distribution service, and was not responsible for the content of the news release.
In 2012, the agency introduced an advertising division and merged it with its branding and public relations practices. Following this exercise, the company was renamed Mercatus+.
References
- Norton, Jessica (May 2, 1994). "Branding agencies predict trends". Brand Week, p. 18.
- Brand Mercatus (Aug. 20, 2001). "Brand Mercatus to expand operations to Asia". Press release.
- (Jan, 2003). Strategic partnership between PARVUS Group and Brand Mercatus. Retrieved Mar. 26, 2006.
- Dow Jones (Jul. 13, 2005). Malaysia's KFC head says won't quit! Retrieved Mar. 26, 2006.
- Sidhu, BK (Jul. 13, 2005). KFCH executive director rebuts Johari’s claims. The Star. Retrieved Mar. 26, 2006.