Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (NRI: Tokyo; Akihisa Fujinuma, President, CEO & COO) today founded NRI WEBrandia, Ltd.; a 100% owned company specializing in corporate brand management for the network era. The new company is capitalized at ¥200 million.

A corporate brand is born and nurtured through dialogues between a company and its markets/customers. With the advancement of the network society, web sites have become increasingly important in building, maintaining and improving corporate brands. In fact, to achieve corporate brand enhancement, it is now vital for companies to perceive web sites not only as tools for the provision of information and the facilitation of electronic transactions, but also as effective media for interactive communications with clients, and for the collection of market and client opinions, which will be reflected in a timely manner in various corporate activities, including product development and response to clients.

Acknowledging these facts, NRI has, since 1995, offered services from consulting to renewal work and internal training for client companies under the auspices of its Web Site Producing Business Promotion Department. These services have been provided to many companies including Nomura Securities, Isuzu Motors and Eizai.
With the establishment of the new company, NRI Group will further enhance its professional services and actively recruit new clients. The new company is targeted to develop a turnover of ¥3 billion within three years.

The NRI Group is accelerating its activities toward the creation of new businesses under the corporate slogan "Dream up the future." The establishment of this new company is regarded as a vital facet of such activities.

[For inquiries, please contact:]
Masanori Izutsu / Kiichiro Yokoyama
Corporate Communications Department
Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.
Phone: +81-3-5255-1981
e-mail: kouhou@nri.co.jp

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