The partners in eight-year-old Two Dimensions: Advertising by Design of Toronto are co-authors of a book coming to bookstores across North America in January.

Simon & Schuster USA is publishing 50,000 hardcover first edition copies of the 256-page, four-color business book, The Persona Principle: How To Succeed in Business with Image-Marketing.

A softcover edition will be published in other languages, and a distribution deal has been signed for China, while European and Japanese deals are pending.

The book is based on a trademarked system developed by Derek Armstrong, the agency’s president/marketing director, and Kam Wai Yu, vice-president/creative director.

Armstrong and Yu give six major seminars and 12 to 14 corporate workshops on The Persona Principle each year.

The seminars are predominantly in the u.s. and are to large audiences of at least 1,000 people.

The Persona Principle is explained step by step in a how-to format to help companies build an image marketing strategy for a brand, a company or a product.

Armstrong says it is a mathematically indexed process that is proven to work.

He says the system was developed to bring some science to marketing and adds those using it do not have to be marketing experts to build a successful marketing plan.

‘Marketing has always been unaccountable,’ Armstrong says.

‘Some people succeed, and others fail,’ he says.

‘This system gives some numbers to it, and allows companies to measure their program and improvement not only from a sales standpoint but the measurement of the objective, image.’

People attending workshops get a bundle of books, including workbooks called The Persona Inventory and The Persona Plan.

The also get a text book, which is the basis for the new book.

It contains the codes and factors needed to rate and evaluate specific objectives about the brand and the company, as well as more than 60 case studies from companies ranging from American Express and Nike to Smart Food.

Two Dimensions is a full-service agency in the top 5% by revenue in Canada.

Clients include Boeing Canada, Catholic Church of Canada, cbc tv, cfto-tv, Hospital for Sick Children, The Toronto Star, Tubografx, and several Ontario government ministries.