By Dr. Wilson Chew
The value of a brand is defined by its ability to differentiate itself from the competition.
Brand building is even more important if a company were to capture a bigger cut of
the global market pie.
A sound brand strategy is sorely lacking in many Asian companies.
To build a successful brand, one must consider good human capital management, technology,
operations, innovation and marketing, and finance.
In my earlier book B2B: 10 Rules to Transform Your Business into a Brand, I was of the view that companies need to be unique. If they don’t believe in that need, then they will not be the next big story because only uniqueness can build a brand. And it is the brand that gives direction to a company’s innovation and marketing. Put another way, the value of a brand is defined by its ability to differentiate itself from the competition.
Industry experts and governments have long encouraged companies to think globally. This makes brand building even more important if a company is to capture a bigger cut of the global market pie.
Unfortunately, Professor Bernd Schmitt, the director of the new Institute on Asian Consumer Insight at Nanyang Technological University’s Business School believes that sound brand strategy is sorely lacking in many Singapore
A brand’s differentiation and intended market position, expressed through human capital management, brings about internal alignment. It also provides a richer picture for employees in that it helps them realise how their roles make a meaningful and valuable contribution to the firm reputation.
Another important internal purpose of the brand is that it helps ensure that the people within the organisation are involved in delivering the promises the brand makes. In fact, when organisational identification is high, perceived organisational support boosts employees’ voluntary participation in brand development and positive word-of-mouth reviews.
Many Asian companies are unable to build a dominant market position especially when it comes to technologically good products. Such firms, says Schmitt, tend to have a more “engineering” orientation towards sales: they invest in technology only as a way to develop a good product that is expected to sell automatically.
Of course, that expectation is never met. Superior technology must be supported by operational excellence so that the final product delivers consistently.
For that to happen, technology and operations must become good operational drivers in executing the brand promise. This is because they are directly involved in the products and processes within a firm. It ensures that there are no incongruities between key brand promises and the quality consistency in the delivery.
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