A blueprint for branding Asian goods cleverly

Book review | Joseph Baladi

Why are so few great brands coming out of Asia (Japan aside)? The brutal truth is that branding is little understood by decision makers throughout much of the region. There exist widespread misconceptions and, in many cases, outright ignorance over the value and role of brands and the process required to build them.

Surveys repeatedly confirm that Asians from across the region overwhelmingly prefer great Western brands to home-grown ones: Given the choice, they will drink Coca-Cola, wear Nike shoes, and drive a BMW every time. Rare is the intense emotional relationship with an Asian brand found in, say, the Apple zealot. Yet the region is awash with tens of thousands of new brands that emerge every other day reflecting an unstoppable energy and vitality that is fueling the increasingly universal belief that this century will belong to Asia (and China in particular). The continued absence of genuinely great Asian brands (as opposed to merely 'good' brands) will at best slow down that prospect, at worst throw a real spanner into the works. Something visible and disruptive needs to happen if Asian brands are to live up to their potential during this period of unprecedented change and opportunity. And something will. In all likelihood it will be driven by individual visionary Asian business leaders. This book provides a clear and compelling blueprint that will deliver long-term sustainable competitive advantage to these exceptional leaders who will, in time, blaze a pioneering trail for others to follow.

The Brutal Truth About Asian Branding aims to do three things: uncover, educate and execute.

Firstly, it aims to expose the practices, circumstances, policies as well as management attitudes and mentality that individually and collectively conspire to effectively hold back Asian brands from graduating to great brands. These range from the plainly visible to the insidiously undetectable. It is reflected in cultural values that encourage middle-level company employees to sanitize bad news; it is reinforced by the unwillingness of all-level employees to experiment with new ideas or even volunteer opinions for fear of being penalized for being wrong; it thrives in operational environments that separate functional departments responsible for creating the product from those that promise the experience of the product to the customer, and it dies a still-born death in the hands of chief executive officers (CEOs) who lack long-term vision in favor of short-term wins.

Secondly, it aims to re-educate Asian managers - particularly CEOs - on the subject of brand and branding. It takes aim at the countless misconceptions and the outright ignorance that have collectively contributed to poor and non-existing brand-building practices in Asian companies. The approach is provocative because many of the metaphors used (from rock music to religion) not only provide immediate and relieving clarity, but many do so by aiming to deliver personal epiphanies. Suddenly the vague, nebulous, contradictory and confusing are rendered clear, connected and comprehensible.

Thirdly, it provides a comprehensive step-by-step explanation of the typical multi-phase methodology brand consultants use to either position new brands or re-position existing brands that have lost their way.

This book is a long-awaited no-holds-barred reality check for Asian decision-makers that at the same time validates the potential greatness hidden in Asian brands and provides the means to making them so.

China Daily

(China Daily 02/28/2011 page17)