Or is it? While Chinese and Indian companies corner a rising share of global production, all top global brands continue to be owned by American and European multinationals. Outside Japan, there are only a few Asian brands in the world market apart from Hyundai, Samsung, and LG. |
So, this leaves Asian companies at the bottom of the heap. Martin Roll, a branding strategist and an old Asia hand, argues quite convincingly that Asia can do better by moving up the value chain. A bigger fortune is there to be made higher up in the value pyramid. |
But do Asian companies have the financial muscle to shop for global brands? Though there has been a beginning, it is going to be a while before Asia can genuinely boast of global brands that have a profitable presence in people's minds. |
On the other hand, Asia does have the capabilities to create and develop global brands, though it may take much longer to do so. Roll gives a nice case study of some Asian brands that are making a mark in world markets""Acer, Haier, Shangri-La Hotels, Aman resorts, Oberoi, Jet Airways, Singapore Airlines and others. These companies have been consistent in the delivery of their services and have made conscious efforts to build their brand equity. |
Asia's two economic powerhouses have a special advantage which they can leverage to produce global brands. It is the large population of non-residents Chinese and Indians in the West. Their numbers are steadily rising and their affluence is better than most other ethnic groups. They provide the base for India and China to build super brands that cut across continents. |
It also helps that ethnic Chinese and Indians in the West remain very strongly attached to the country of their origin. They are more likely to consume a product or a service that reminds them of home. For instance, PepsiCo has decided to take its Indian brand Kurkure to the US. It is targeted mostly at the large population of non-resident Indians there. |
So, Roll argues, the key is to build strong Asian brands which can subsequently be taken global. And here lies the book's central message: traditional images of exotic Asia (snake charmers in India, acrobats in China, pagodas in Thailand etcetera) no longer help in developing brand equity in the region. |
What now goes down well with Asian consumers is the image of an urban Asia, modern and pulsating with life. Instead of being reminded of the past, Asians prefer to be associated with the present, which marks the beginning of Asian economic resurgence. |
This was a lesson Singha beer learnt in Thailand. The market leader for long, it was associated with Thai exotica. Once the South Asian meltdown happened in the late-1990s, Chang Beer saw an opportunity and came out with a piece of communication that expressed traditional Thai values in a modern way. The people of the country, who thought the past was all about failures, quickly took to the new campaign. As a result, Chang now has a dominant share of the Thai market and is all set to become a star Asian brand. |
But global or even Asian success stories are few. Asia's branding strategy has been traditionally weak. Several top brands in India, for instance, just vanished under the multinational onslaught after the sluice gates were thrown open in 1991. It's not very hard to see why. |
China and India, representing the bulk of Asia, joined the global free market economy a little late in the day""China in 1977 and India in 1991. As a result, enough thought never went into developing strong brands. In India, under the licence-permit-quota raj, there was always a ready market for whatever you produced. Where was the need to build strong brands? |
Thankfully, that mindset has undergone a change. ASIAN BRAND STRATEGY HOW ASIA BUILDS STRONG BRANDS Martin Roll Palgrave Macmillan Pages: xviii+254 |