The old Chinese saying “we live in interesting times” takes on a new meaning these days. We live in turbulent times.

As usual the Greeks had a theory on this too. Heraclitus said everything is in a constant state of flux. He must have had a visionary view on global stock markets, circa 2008!!

But the current chaos in the stock market brings to mind an interesting differentiation made by brand valuation experts on brand valuation as opposed to market capitalisation.

Interbrand the company that pioneered the methodology of establishing brand value puts it like this:

“Brand Valuation is an entirely different process to market capitalisation. Brand Valuation takes an inside-out view, looking at the brand’s contribution to the business’s success. Market capitalization is an outside-in view, where shareholders judge the company’s equity as an investment in relation to the market.

This inside-out view is established through three components: a financial analysis to forecast revenues that are attributable to the brand, a role of brand analysis to determine how important the brand is in influencing choice, and a brand strength analysis that benchmarks the brand’s ability to create ongoing demand.”

I would like to discuss in greater length how brand strength can be built and leveraged at a time of economic downturn and how we can link brand value to brand communication and brand strategy.

Changes in brand value aren’t directly affected by the rise and fall in market capitalisation; the perceived success or failure of a brand creates a chain of events that will affect our confidence to do business with the brand. This can create a compound effect upon the measures of brand value.

Put simply, we need to feel confident of our choices. When a brand runs into trouble and bad news spreads around that brand, confidence dissipates in relationship to the scale and impact of the bad news. Clearly there is a lot of bad news polluting various brands right now and this will be having a knock-on effect on their brand values.

A strong brand that engenders trust and confidence will be a huge asset to its parent organisation at these times.

With this in mind I sat down and looked at some of the key learning by experts on leveraging brands during a downturn.

Here is a shorthand of some of the must do’s identified by these experts. 

1. Keep the Buzz
   Don’t stop communicating with your customers. In a downturn, people don’t stop buying, they just buy more cleverly. This means they make more selective choices. So pitch towards pragmatism. And be honest if things have gone sour.If you are holding out with a stable brand promise that you can deliver on, use the Warren Buffet method in communication strategy. Take the higher ground. Take advantage of the general decrease in marketing spending to grab a larger share of voice and define yourself in a less cluttered marketplace.Other than traditional advertising, now is the time to  also evaluate less traditional ways of communicating with your customers, as you must leverage maximum value on your ad dollar.
2. Know your Customer
   In bad times many companies see research as a waste. However, understanding their customers at this moment is even more critical. If the market place is sick, you need to find the right doctor that can diagnose the malaise. You must use every tool in the book to stay fighting fit.You should protect your budget and keep an eye on the longer-term innovative projects. Your business must know where your customers are going over a time horizon that will allow you to come through the downturn in a better competitive position. You must be there for your customers during the bad times, which may mean cross-subsidising or taking a margin pinch with them.
3. Start Milking a few Cash Cows
   Examine ways in which the stronger brands in the portfolio (or the stronger businesses)could support the marketing efforts of the weaker brands or weaker businesses.Now is a good time to determine if every subtle brand distinction actually matters to customers.
4. Rationalise
   Look at Unilever - how it is one of the few companies showing double digit growth right now, as it has axed so many  of their nice-to-have but not-really-doing-much brands.Take a sharp knife to every unnecessary product brand, sub-brand or program brand. Business units have a habit of creating new brands for reasons other than for the benefit of customers or their bottom line. Each of these costs money to support and distracts attention from core issues.
5. Feed your Cows
   Build on Existing Equities. Identify which brands enjoy the strongest customer loyalty. Companies should explore ways of further leveraging these brands. Product line extensions and licensing can be especially powerful as efficient ways of unlocking brand potential.
6. Don’t dilute your Brand Promise
   There might be temptation to cut back on product quality, and service quality, in order to squeeze a few extra margin points. Don’t do it! If you lose confidence in your brand’s promise, your customers will be the first to know.
7. Don’t cheapen premium Brand Value
   Resist the temptation to use price discounting to maintain volume targets. Take the risk of losing a few customers in the short-term and focus on revenue rather than volume. It will cost much more to reverse the negative impression of “the deep discount” after the event than it accrues your business in the short term.

   As a final call for action, building brands is like nurturing children, companies can’t capitulate on the first sight of sickness. They must administer medicine, they must work at getting well, and they must keep the show going.

What do you get when you roll thinkers, musicians, actors, writers, painters, strategists, film directors, comedians, futurists, psychologists, fashion designers and entrepreneurs all into one? 

Well, it isn’t too much of an exaggeration to say you’ll be looking at an advertising man.

I remember many years ago, when I was a young upstart in an ad agency, how I looked up to the ‘elders’ in my industry. The way they went about their business, the way they presented their ideas – every word they uttered was pure wisdom, every move they made was sheer brilliance. They were very much larger than life.

In their magical hands, unintelligible scribbles on paper towels became poems, incoherent tunes turned into pop music and simple sketches came to life in the form of moving pictures.

In the absence of movie stars back then, these admen were the celebrities of the corporate world. They worked and played hard. They knew how to live and, boy, did they know how to party! Clients lapped up their every word and bought every idea they had to sell. 

They were people of immense talent and much of what they did for a living is still clearly evident in the footprints of the many successful brands we have today. Think tea and we instantly recall the famous Ummph campaign. Adjourn to a watering hole after a long day and we instinctively find comfort in The Long Cool Dane.

These admen also used their talent to change perception. We were once proud owners of the Austin, the Mini, the Fiat and the Morris Minor. Then someone came along and changed the “tin can” image of Japanese cars. Today, Toyota and Honda are symbols of reliability and even prestige to many Malaysians.

Through clever brand positioning, the “So quiet you can hear a feather drop” campaign for National air-conditioners displaced Philco and Carrier as market leaders overnight. In much the same way, Milo overhauled Ovaltine as the chocolate drink of choice and Dreamland overtook Dunlopillo as the preferred night-time companion.

Fast-forward to recent times. 

The much-loved DiGi Yellow Coverage Fellow has become popular culture. An icon that is talked about, written about and even invited to weddings. Not to mention the fact that the lovable fellow has made the cash register ring and won many effectiveness awards for DiGi.

And who could forget Malaysia’s first ever Cannes Grand Prix and D&AD Yellow Pencil triumphs? Our admen have taken on the world and came back with the Olympic Gold Medal and Oscar of advertising.

I could go on and on about our achievements, but the point I would like to make is this – we wouldn’t have great brands without great advertising talents. No Milo, just chocolate drinks. No Carlsberg or Tiger, just beer. No Colgate, just toothpaste. No ASTRO or TV3, just television. And no DiGi, Maxis or Celcom, just tele-communications.

From building brand value to consumer loyalty, some of our advertising greats have spent their entire lives making and crafting brand stories. Their love for their work is perhaps second only to the fervour that one expects from Hollywood.

The admen of yesteryears and today are no different. They are imaginative and artistic in nature. They are proponents of the arts, thinkers, strategists and craftsmen. People who think out of the box, go against the grain and see opportunity when others see adversity. They are people who enjoy work and life to the fullest.

Come 28th November, the advertising industry will honour some of these great thinkers, musicians, actors, writers, painters, strategists, film directors, comedians, futurists, psychologists, fashion designers and entrepreneurs all rolled into one.

To Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Lim Kok Wing, Janet Yeo, Harmandar Singh, Risyha Joseph, Ted Lim, Shukri Rifaie, Edwin Leong, Lau Peng Kai, Yasmin Ahmad, Ali Mohamed, Khairudin Rahim, Paul Loosley, Jennifer Chan, Tony Savarimuthu, Azizul Kallahan, the late Dato’ Jaffar Ali, the late John Machado and the late Peter Beaumont, – you have not only changed the advertising industry but also the way we live.

“The real giants have always been poets, men who jumped from facts into the realms of imagination and ideas,” said Bill Bernbach. We are proud to stand on the shoulders of giants.

I have often repeated the idea in this column that brands are the sum of stories and associations creating reputation and perception. I came across this interesting article from Interbrand that I think has so much relevance right now globally, as we look at shoring up consumer confidence and upholding reputation  not merely in financial markets but in countries as diverse as the US, China and even Iceland.

China is such a great nation and is making such economic progress. Its presentation of the Olympics was the greatest the world has seen, in scale, in artistry, in stature. Yet, it has   immense quality perceptions with a series of inexcusable and debilitating blows to its repute with the several scandals rocking China’s brand equity on its ability to produce quality goods.

The US on the other hand, has had a big bash to its repute by the constant bungling of its political brand CEO George Bush and his administration. The botched financial system that is sending shock waves across the world is only tempered by a huge acceptance that American brands from Coke to Google still create a global mechanism for upholding cultural and informational stimuli that uphold American prestige through depression and reputation loss.

As a Malaysian, watching credibility and confidence erosion in our own political process, I feel we in the private sector, must be aware, that we are the ones who, through our brands and our professionalism, will help hold the flames of reputation that will anchor international perceptions that all is well.

In this context, let me share this strong piece on how Brands Create Nations by Jurgen Hausler-

Brands Create Nations

By Dr Jürgen Häusler,Interbrand.

Brands create nations? Why do we furrow our brows when we read this sentence? Because we usually consider it a law of nature that the cause-and-effect relationship is the other way around: Nations create brands.

What do we mean by “Nations create brands?” Brands leverage their origin to position themselves for more success on the global market. They try to exploit people’s impression or convictions about the special strengths of entire nations. People the world over believe a car “Made in Germany” must be imbued with German engineering expertise. Putting on a suit “Made in Italy” turns normal mortals into passionate lovers. And the luxurious “Swiss made” watch exudes the added aura of exclusivity that its status-hungry wearer longs for.

Indeed, “Made in Switzerland” is a good example, having demonstrated considerable success in the past few years. Now it’s not only marketing experts who know that “Swiss-ness” is on the upswing and has become the central thrust behind any number of brands in diverse sectors. The confidence that offerings, ranging from financial products and airline flights to coffee makers and skin care products, will be perceived by the world as attractive and desirable if they sport a white cross on the red background, preferably with the word “Swiss” in their name and a visual identity dominated by red and white, has long since spread across the borders of the Alpine nation.

What’s actually going on in our heads when we buy into such national, collective claims of quality in products and services provided by individual companies? Evaluated in light of contemporary ideas about rational thought, not much. After all, who among us still hasn’t realized that in the globalized economy – among other things – the epithet “Made in” no longer says much about where essential components of the product were actually manufactured. Who hasn’t observed that personnel are not always natives of the country the brand is tapping for its perceived benefits, even among the so-called premium brands in the airline industry? And by trusting in the alleged cultural traits of the entire population of a given country in the first place, aren’t we ultimately expressing regrettable and obsolete prejudices?

This is the point where we can begin thinking of the cause-and-effect relationship working in the other direction. So it’s not “the Germans” who stand for “Freude am Fahren” (indeed quite the contrary, sometimes) but BMW, Mercedes and Porsche, who are spreading the news around the world that Germanyis the place to go for masculine Fahrfreude, exclusive appearance and technical perfection on four wheels. Francedoesn’t make the best sparkling wine – its Veuve Clicquot that ensures that Champagne enjoys a worldwide reputation for the most exclusive product in its category. “Made in Italy” is not the basis for the success of Italian menswear designers – on the contrary. “Made by Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna or Brioni” gives “Made in Italy” its universal prestige. In other words, these brands influence the perception of “their” nations.

To be historically precise, one should note that this relatively new development may continue to grow in importance. The phenomenon reflects the rise in importance of brands themselves over the past few decades. Our perception of the world is increasingly influenced by the constructs of brand-builders. For example, the Lange brand recently put the long-forgotten town of Glashütteback on the world map. And for the most of the world, the Samsung brand defines people’s image of South Korea. Nations still fighting for one of the top positions among the countries of the world would do well to keep an eye out for homegrown brands that have the potential to capture the world’s attention. After all: Brands create nations.

Biography:

Dr Jürgen Häusler, PHD is CEO Interbrand Central & Eastern Europe.

Interbrand is the worlds leading brand consultancy. He has experience as a social scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute, a doctorate in social sciences, a degree in Business Administration, and has received research grants for work at M.I.T. Jürgen has applied his experience to successful endeavors at Interbrand. He is a Honorary Professor for Strategic Business Communication at the University of Leipzig.

We have heard so many times that if we want to grow a nation, we need to grow her people. A country can be blessed with many natural resources but if it has not nurtured her  most important asset  it will fall behind.

People are not some mere resource; they are like diamonds. It is in the cut and the processing of a diamond that its true worth comes out. So it is with people. They are creative and social beings and an aggressive  sectoral approach to developing human resourcefulness is a priority for socio-economic development. It calls for strategic and integrated public policies, for example in education, health, and employment sectors that promote occupational skills, knowledge and performance enhancement.

Somehow, in Malaysia, the policy framework has intentionally misinterpreted the agenda to grow numbers rather than growing talents. They say we must have a huge population base to create a market.   That’s an economies-of-scale argument that is true for manufacturing efficiencies, not otherwise. If we look at the Nordic countries, for instance, they have a smaller population than us and are yet fully developed and prosperous.

The US is one of the most powerful nations in the world, that ‘borrowed’ or lured the best brains nurtured in other countries through its immigrant policies and its scholarships into its tertiary education system. In fact, the US model is an ambush model that, studies show, had a very bad secondary school system locally and used the human capital that had been nurtured in other countries in its formative years, and then ‘hijacked’ this talent to world class universities. In fact, the US school system was considered to be one of the worst in the league of first world countries. But it compensated by having the world’s best tertiary system and became the centre of opportunity for the best talent globally. 

And we are stuck. Look at the paucity of employable talent in our graduate programmes. We see that the government is churning out hundreds of thousands of graduates, and yet somehow why we are still short of the right talent joining the work force.  We have had some plan to shift our economy from its early low end manufacturing capabilities (assembling electronic components, etc) to a truly competitive nation that pushed its services industry. And of course, we forgot that services are driven by human talent .In the advertising marketing and branding industry for instance, it’s all about intellectual capital. Capital that is acquired by the calibre of minds that generate ideas.

How can our economy grow when the “engines of growth ” is not moving?

Brain drain- in the Ad Industry
At one time we heard that the computer industry was suffering when people moved north to China and Hong Kong. Then the hospitality industry that went into frenzy of losing all sorts of people.

Now it is the communication and ad industry which is bleeding. Its small talent pool is drying up.

The advertising industry could be the most unpredictable business within the gambit of all the creative business. The business structure is not only determined by the market as a whole but by the constant losing and winning of accounts through a process called the “pitch “.

Every win and loss of an account can have a Tsunami effect on the overall job market, not to mention what it does to the salary structure.

Thus, the lure of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore has drained some of the most talented creative minds in our business. As I always said, if the offer to move is only 30 percent higher, one may think twice to move as they have to think of uprooting the families and so on, but the discrepancies are 100% to 200% now.

As if losing talents to mature markets is not bad enough, we are now the target of emerging markets such as Vietnam and to a lesser extent Cambodia!

Right now, the creative industry is not short of business but short of talent to service the clients. We just don’t have enough people coming in quickly to fill in the gap. So what happens when the situation gets worst?

Brand drain
Brands will suffer the most when clients get average kind of work from their agencies. Chaos will be the order of the day as brand owners move business from one end to the other not knowing it is an industry problem rather than an isolated one. Business will start to fall, markets shrink and some brands may die.

Multinational clients have the simpler task of moving their operation where the money and talents are found. They have no qualms about cutting back on their investments. They are not known to build people and nations. They are just here to build wealth. The end result is simple. The whole economy gets affected, consumer spending reduced to a whimper and what do you think will happen to the economy?

Bank drain
I am not just talking about the financial part of the drain here, obviously it will have a significant impact on the economy, banks will pull back loans and there will be a drop in consumer spending.  The retail sector will be the first to feel the impact. Job insecurity will increase. The better people with job prospects will move offshore and it will become a vicious cycle.

The worst thing is that the “bank of talents “will dry up, the bank of brands maybe reduced.

So what can be done about it?

• Focus on Quality.
  The government can help by churning out real graduates (just like 20 years ago, MARA was the biggest source of talents for the creative industry. Shukri Rafie, CEO of Publicis; Khairuddin Rahim, MD of Lowe; Yasmin Ahmad, executive creative director of Leo Burnett; Azizul Kalahan, chairman of Spencer Azizul Communication and AMPMedia executive director Datuk Borhanuddin Osman, who is also present of Malaysia Association of Commercial Radio Operators; and a whole lot of famous personalities were all great products of the past.)

• Widen the Net and Brand the Pond
  The industry need to look outside our field to attract talents. The Association of Accredited Advertising Agents is launching a recruitment fair next year. Our industry needs a facelift. We must be bold enough to admit that we need to re-brand our industry to convince parents that our industry is not about drinking and partying. It is a serious business that is both rewarding and meaningful. After all, we are the builders of brands. And brands are the stimuli of economic growth. It is our industry that helps shape society at least at the level of perception.

• Focus on training and nurturing talent.
  The international agencies must start their training programmes rather than taking trained staff from local agencies.

• Protect your Ideas.
  Finally, some may not think it is not important but sticking to The Pitch Fee rules will ensure we put a value to our creative ideas. It is about intellectual property. It is about sustainability.

How can a good client trust an agency that gives away free ideas instead of building their own agency brand? No client should engage an agency to guard their brand when it can’t do the same for themselves. No matter how big or small the agency is. Or, how desperate or hungry one is for business.

Let’s romance our talent pool, let’s build prestige into our industry and let’s ensure we stem the outflow. People first must be our mantra. 

Much has been said and written since the aftermath of the March elections. Over 5 months, 161 days or 3864 hours has gone by and we still don’t seem to have conclusion to this election. The opposition is still behaving like an opposition and the government is as removed from reality as it was before the so called ’shock to the system’. Complacency is a recurrent and often fatal condition in politics.

Caught in between all this is the poor Rakyat, grappling with high food and fuel prices, they remain in the dark. Salaries aren’t going up and everything under the sun is sky rocketing. Another by-election is the least priority in the minds of the people.

In the early days of democracy, the Romans believed in a concept of ‘panem et circus’(bread and circuses), which had a simple success formula – ‘keep the peoples bellies filled and distract them with circuses’. Gladiators fed to lions were thus standard fare.

We in turn today, are fed with tons of rumors and scandals daily, either through the mainstream papers or the digital media. In the first couple of weeks this was indeed entertaining rojak of Bollywood and Sex and the City. But an overdose of slime slinging will only make this country sillier than what’s happening across the Atlantic – a Paris Hilton spoof now running for campaign talk, that epitomizes what one journalist aptly called the devolution to ‘the politics of nothing’.

Perception or reality?

Contrary to popular belief, the last election was not decided by what was badly done, nor not done by the government, but by what was perceived to be done and not done. Time and again we have heard that politics is a perception game and even the old timers kepT harping on this. Yet politicians are so poor in managing perception. One might ask why?

The answer is simple. The old guard failed to listen!

Listening is an art. Politicians need to train their ears, for unlike the mouth which one uses daily the ear seldom performs the way it should- if not trained properly. Political hierarchies are such that the higher one is, the less one hears. Leaders can calcify after years of giving orders and listening to sweet platitudes from the people. Power does not merely corrupt, it can definitely deafen. After all, within a group of yes-men that tell leaders what they want to hear or think they want to hear, it is not easy to absorb the truth. More often than not, the truth hurts. Think about it - If you don’t use your limbs for a year, imagine what will happen to them. Paralysis.

Anwar – the Challenger brand

In the world of branding, there is always the incumbent, established brand leader. Then comes the challenger brand. Challengers are often fiery and do the unexpected to gain attention as well as sympathy. Typically, the target prospects are young, anti-establishment and willing to try new products or services. The older voters can never be the target for the simple reason that they are used to the old and tested brand and dare not take risk. Often they will ask questions like; Will it work? Will it backfire? Will it be a waste of money?

Anwar, played this branding game perfectly, he positioned himself as the ‘CHANGE” agent right from the start. And he is consistent enough to repeat it time and time again. He is able to embrace the frustration of the people, the needs of the new generation as well as the scepticism within the ranks of government. From the onset, his Keadilan logo was well done. The famous black eye was well transformed into a winning strategy. No doubt he had branding consultants help him professionally.

The rule of thumb in politics on the ‘anti incumbent swing vote’ is that thirty percent of people will be against you even if you are a saint. It worked wonders for the Anwar brand. He just needed to fire up another twenty odd percent to win over the majority. And he has just done that. In the minds of some people, Anwar is the brand of hope and an exciting friend. They are emotionally predisposed to this brand and hence he can do no wrong for the time being. Even when he makes mistakes, it will be quickly forgotten or forgiven. That’s the power of a strong brand. Similarly, how many people will really stop wearing Nike if it exploits workers in some god forsaken place in Timbuktu? Nike will claim its helping third world enterprise, and most people will just buy it – the storyline and the shoe!

Umno/Barisan brand

Sometime in 2001 the UK press was all onto a leaked focus group study that said that Tony Blair was the new labour brand and that the brand was contaminated. The vibrant discourse that ensued on political branding finally agreed that it was not so much the man as his failed government in handling healthcare, education, pensions etc that impacted on the leader as a brand. Today, here in Malaysia we have the reverse analogy. At the level of brand architecture it shows that Barisan is the mother brand, but in true sense we know that what really drives the nation is Umno. And hence, we shall look at Umno brand verses the Anwar brand here. (Keadilan is the brand on paper, but in reality it is nothing without Anwar). It is a little like trying to think of Air Asia and not have Tony Fernadez come to mind.

Dinosaur politics

For fifty years, Umno has not changed their brand fight; they kept selling on the same brand promise and even upped their ante. Though the promise is still relevant to some, especially the old guard, the new generation has somewhat relegated that need to number four or five in the order of importance. The top three drivers of political change would be transparency, corruption and the economy. Just imagine, in product terms its like Umno is still selling a mobile phone the size of a massager and lugging the car battery along. (Remember the time when mobile phones were first introduced way back in 70’s?).

Oversell and Undersell

To be fair to the Pak Lah government, when he first burst onto the scene the brand promise was somewhat ahead of delivery and hence the blame should go to his communication department. At other times, when areas of significant achievements were met it did not communicate effectively to the nation. Most political observers will agree that Pak Lah should be single minded in his pursuits. He should not be a PM for everything and anything. He should be a reformist as promised. His political outcome can stand up for it – as we look through his achievements he has done reasonably well.

Despite the hype, in areas of Judiciary, GLCs and civil service he outperforms Tun Mahathir by a long chalk.

The real Legacy - a snapshot scorecard

Pak Lah gave us the Royal Commission, last time we only have the loyal commission. On GLCs, Malaysian Airlines has turned around and is making profits now under the aegis of Datuk Idris Jala. Proton is also making all the right moves and Khazanah is one of the most sought after places to work in the country. Previously, the tax payers’ money burnt bonfires of vanities and inefficiency in these companies. In the civil service, and in e-Government we now have one day passports, before this we were sent from pillar to post. Car licenses, business licenses and you name it licenses are just a click away now compared to five years ago. It is the small things that ease the burden of the people that count. Not monuments to ego, that bleed the treasury.

With all these changes, how on earth is he perceived to be bad? No thanks to the opposition’s ability in a pre-emptive brand representation of Pak Lah as the ineffective leader – soft and slow and sleepy. His team just could not shake off this brand tag! But unlike the Blair analogy the Pak Lah government has delivered to some extent and as time runs out for writing his legacy, Abdullah must rise to the occasion – better late than never. He must reveal the real contamination is not Pak Lah but Umno. He needs to focus, to pick on a pragmatic reform strategy for Umno, be honest about it and consistently communicate to the nation his own perestroika or open agenda – Malaysia Reformasi.

How is it possible that some brands consistently command astronomical price premiums, while others are forced to slash prices to sustain a presence in the market place? Why do some brands continue to survive decades after their introduction, while some fizzle off in a matter of months?

The answer lies greatly in a brand manager’s ability to understand consumer insights, and hoe they can turn these insights into winning strategies. Need proof? Let’s take a look at some of the brands that continue to enjoy top-of-mind status in the respective categories.

Brand loyalty vs brand royalty

Milo, Colgate and Coca-Cola offer perfect case studies of brand loyalty. We all grew up with them, and through decades of change, from the days of flower power to the digital revolution, they still manage to remain relevant to consumers of all ages.

But after reading Brand Royalty, a book by independent marketing and branding consultant Mark Haig, something I had been thinking about for quite some time was affirmed – there is another, more elusive plateau for brand builders to aspire to.

While the common term of brand loyalty is often used to describe the continuous usage of a particular brand even with heavy competitive price cuts, brand royalty is a more magnetic premium status capable of attracting a cult following even in times of recession.�
 

Brand romance

I must say that the French have virtually perfected the art of royal branding. The price tags of some popular French products, from perfumes to cognacs to even plain water, are often astonishing. Any brand manager worth their salt knows that the art of pushing prices to sky-high levels is a skill of the highest order, and would thus take it as a great honour to manage such brands on an international level.

For example, the French wines of certain chateaus are famed for their royal status. Some can fetch prices as high as RM20,000 a bottle, whereas other chateaus in the same vicinity can barely command a three-digit price tag. No matter how one looks at it, the grapes are similar and the soil almost identical. Is this the finest art of wine making at work, or could it simply be a masterful act of royal branding?

French branding consistently possesses a magical, aristocratic quality to it. And if one were to delve deeper into this quality, it would be clear to see that one emotional aura stands out – romance. 

French wine possesses a halo of romance. 

French perfume, with its sensual imagery and rich tones, is all about romance.

The key insight to human behaviour, as Bill Bernbach has so cleverly articulated, is that basic human instincts like love, hate and fear will never change. Never in a million years.

Love with French panache is, of course, “romance”. And romancing a brand positioning means we are moving towards or building brand royalty. Emotion-based selling will always be the key to the consumer’s wallet.

From the sublime to the sordid

Speaking of emotions and royalty, I can’t help but to delve just a little into political campaigning and the negative use of Malaysian royalty. It now appears to be fashionable to jump on the Opposition bandwagon, deriding the Barisan government and every little hiccup they make. I would rather refrain from that. 

I would, however, like to comment on the actions of certain politicians, who have used the subject of royalty to instil fear in the hearts of the people. Some parties have unashamedly brought up the term “Malay royalty”, claiming that other races have no rights to them.

Romancing the people

I believe such people are simple ignorant of the fact that the Sultans and Kings belong to us all. As long as we remain Malaysian citizens, they are our rulers. Even more so now that we have a very distinguished Sultan in Selangor, and a highly educated Raja Muda in Perak, both of whom are highly popular among their constituents.

Many of today’s members of the royal family have evolved, successfully building great brand images for themselves. Politicians that play to the gutter end up as rabble-rousers. Right now Malaysian politics is playing to the lowest common denominator, appealing to, and fighting about the basest issues that disgrace us as a people.

True leaders are capable of keeping their dignity and raising the bar of discourse. Simply put, those that romance their constituency with flair and sensitivity shall find the mantle of political royalty.

TRUE leadership is about extreme success. In the good old days, leadership success was so apparent and so effective that leaders needed no added posture or presentation.

From Attila the Hun to Hitler, Martin Luther King and Mandela, all great leaders stood for something to the millions of followers they led to war or peace, to reconciliation or to change ?

They were the powers that defined themselves.

However, in this media frenzy world, leadership is not a God-given right – it is constantly under siege. It must be crafted and executed with the same savvy that great brands are built. It must be relevant to the task at hand and make the right impact that can energise teams of people to support this leadership.

Great brands build great companies and great companies are built by great leaders. Thus, behind every great brand are some great leaders. Nations as we all know need great leaders to make them great.

The world’s oldest mega-brands

Let me start in the corporate world. Take three of the world’s greatest brands, all more than 100 years old – Coca Cola, IBM and GE.

Coca-Cola acknowledges that the greatest impact on the brand was Robert Woodruff. Woodruff became president in 1923. It was his marketing brilliance that led to the expansion of the company overseas, the presence of Coca-Cola at the 1928 Olympics, and the development of numerous packaging and distribution innovations. In GE there was the original visionary Thomas Edison and then of course, Jack Welch.

It was Welch’s 20-year tenure that turned GE into a modern-day mega corporation. Through streamlining operations, acquiring new businesses and ensuring that each business under the GE umbrella was one of the best in its field, Welch helped the company expand dramatically. Company revenues grew from about US$27bil before his arrival to nearly US$130bil the year before Welch left.

IBM’s Lou Gerstner came in from outside the business in 1993. At that stage, IBM was a floundering giant, struggling with a loss of direction and declining profits. Gerstner made a controversial but prophetic decision to retain the company’s unified corporate structure rather than divide it into separate, independent companies. He is credited with reinventing IBM and reviving its brand.

Take Steve Jobs and Apple, or Branson and Virgin, or Hans Snook and Orange. How much is the brand able to stand apart from the driving force that is the CEO brand and his track record or reputation?

They say in certain companies with iconic leaders, 50% of the company’s reputation is anchored in the CEO brand. That’s a frightening figure when you think of how much time and resources are concentrated on the product brands by companies that wish to be market leaders.

So what then of political leadership?

Branding political campaigns and leaders

Leaders that engage in a clear identity that speaks of who they are and what they stand for, have the ability to craft a brand for themselves. We all know that a brand persona that can magnetise the power of people is what all political leaders must aspire to.

Most recently we have all witnessed Obama-mania and the disciplined approach to brand engagement he had. It was helped no doubt by his amazing oratorical skills, but it was his consistent mantra of “yes, we can” and his tightly honed arguments of “change you can believe in” that are clear brand visions that helped him simplify for a mass movement what he stood for.

Those of us in this field can recognise and celebrate the iconoclastic power of great branding that can give a black man a strong chance at running America. It is true that brand specialists can move mountains. Miracles can happen. This, after all, is why we are called magic makers. What then are the threads that link the great leaders of brands and companies to those of political organisations?

Tom Peters, who spawned an entire genre of personal branding after the publication of his book The Brand Called You, says that branding starts with a fundamental question: ”What is it that I can do that can make me different?”

“Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the power of branding. We are CEOs of companies – Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called ‘You’.”

Peters goes on to say: ”If you are going to be a brand, you have to become relentlessly focused on what you do that adds value.”

Once that is mapped out, it’s just a matter of marketing “You Inc”. As it is in business, so it is in politics. Leaders in this day and age must brand themselves or be perceived as colourless and bland.

It’s not a mere dressing up for a party – it is now a matter of survival.

The brutal truth is this: be a brand or be damned!

THE war for consumer attention among brands is getting fiercer by the day. Mass advertising is under constant theoretical siege by marketing pundits. Customer made and nouveau niche are the latest hot buttons.

Welcome to the world of free-for-all, which is all about giving away products and services to consumers without having them have to pay for it. Losing strategy?

Think again. It’s all about getting those eyeballs or gaining that attention amidst the plethora of choice or that conversion point of desire through that age-old strategy of trial and referrals. Call it what you will, the old AIDA (Attention /Interest/ Desire/ Acceptance) still rules the behaviour choice of our consumers.

What has changed is that instead of the cluster bomb approach, we are down to the old shotgun. Point, aim, shoot and capture! Free newspapers, magazines, SMS, WiFi, music downloads and even airline tickets are nothing new. Look at our own backyard; there is theSun newspaper. They followed the basic Google model, going after traffic or readership to justify an advertising rate card or look at the constant offers/counter offers of Firefly, AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines.

The latter too now is going beyond mere price undercutting to establishing captive customer clubs, but using its premier brand to fight a low-cost carrier, which shows a degree of brand confusion. Presumably, Firefly should have been used as the vehicle for freebies and discount travel.

So let’s get a grip on this old strategy in its latest incarnation, “Try-vertising”. It certainly has started getting more imaginative in how it gets relevant trial. The old shampoo sample in a magazine was random, a shot in the dark – you had no idea who tried it, when and how.

Now it’s got niche. We can target the right aperture, the right emotive trigger and the really interested prospect. At its best, Try-vertising is going nouveau niche and hot button branding.

“Tryvertising”

Trendwatching.com defines it as “it is a new breed of product placement in the real world, integrating your goods and services into daily life in a relevant way, so that consumers can make up their minds based on their experience, not (only) your messages.”

Sony just launched its new range of DVD handy-cams, teaming up with London Zoo for 11 days to offer consumers the chance to borrow DVD handy-cams for one hour, free of charge. After a two-minute demonstration, families were free to roam the zoo and record all their favourite family moments. After their visit, the DVD handy-cam obviously had to be returned, but participants could keep their DVD (with pre-recorded product and purchase details).

Or look at the Ritz Carlton Key to Luxury programme in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz. Deluxe guest room accommodations on Carlton Club Level, the use of a CLS500 with unlimited mileage for the duration of the guest’s stay, full tank of gas each morning and overnight valet parking. Dozens of guests decided to buy a new Mercedes based on these integrated test-drives.

Brand Butlers

Brand butlers are a Try-vertising concept with an aperture twist; when might you think most of the product choice? For instance, in Istanbul, a diaper company has set up changing rooms in malls with free samples of their product. In New York, temporary 20 restrooms were set up in the heart of Times Square by a toilet paper company goods and services into daily life in a relevant way, so that consumers can make up their minds based on their experience.

Swapping

It’s back to barter. Travellers now can find free places to stay and people to hang out with when they are travelling. One of the most popular websites which specialise in holiday swapping has over 440,000 users from 224 countries signed up so far, and they’ve stayed at about 345,000 homes. Another resourceful swapping is a global WiFi community website which lets its members share their home Internet connections in exchange for free access to hotspots provided by over 190,000 other members worldwide.

Back to hot buttons

In its true sense of spin, giving is receiving and sharing is caring. But in pragmatic terms, there is nothing called a free lunch. Trialing consumers now has increased priority, and that means that marketing costs are diverted from the mass market communication. Last month Gillette Australia trialed KLM travelers after in-flight meals. Textured teeth-wipes and airline meals; a perfect match in relevance. A perfect example of the way this process will flow.

Not the end of the world. We ad people have to look at working with shotguns. Think about it. It’s still the same old imperative – our clients want a good bang for their buck.

The best of us will give it our best shot and hit the right hot buttons.

THE jury is out. McKinsey confirms in a recent study that 74% of global marketing executives are planning to spend on online video content. The penny has finally dropped that “My Space is Your Space.” CGA – consumer generated advertising – is the new big thing. So what’s gone wrong with the old way of advertising?

As a hardcore ad man, I don’t think it’s the ads that are at fault – it’s the media buys that have created the fallout. Most consumers are tired, irritated and zapped out of intrusive advertising. And we know that the old model of disruptive media will not hold on.

In that old model, you looked for a media aperture when people watched something they liked – say American Idol or your English premier league and then you intruded that with your ad. And often a half dozen others back to back. The ad usually cuts through that memorable goal or that crucial question – “Who’s in and who’s out?”

Little wonder then that almost 40% of consumers avoid ads as much as possible, according to one report (Adweek/JWT Report 2007). It is now official too that AOS (advertising overload syndrome) is a bigger pain to average consumers than George Bush is to the American voter. Well, almost.

All this and much more on the digital revolution were discussed in the last iMedia brand summit conducted last month. I will take you through the gist of some interesting trends that were covered in the seminar (based on a report by iMedia Communications Inc associate editor Michael Estrin, whom I will quote extensively).

Bridging the new digital divide: brands and consumers

Jeffrey Rayport, founder and chairman of Marketspace, and former Harvard business school professor, spoke at length on the wired world. He said there was a new digital divide: the gap between brands and their consumers.

The problem they say is that the rate at which users are digitally connecting to the world isn’t the real problem, but that brands now must work through an oligopoly created by the likes of Microsoft and Google to gain access to their consumers.

Creating “context reality”

The oligopoly is no longer selling space but rather the users themselves, who in turn have leveraged the explosion in social media to create what Rayport called their own “context reality”.

The challenge for brands is to reclaim the relationship in a world where users are making their own media reality, and those users are in turn being sold by a massive cartel where the top 10 companies control 99% of the total ad dollars flowing into the web.

One strange result from the industry-wide shake-ups is that many media companies are becoming agencies, brands are becoming media companies, and agencies are becoming technology companies.

But the main challenge is not different to what challenged us in the traditional ad model: how to engage your customers. Or how, as one expert called it, do you create the brand content to drive the “Passionistas” – the hooked in customer, the passionate and engaged consumer?

Several clear strategies were enunciated:

• Target the core: Or “overwhelm the microcosm”. This really means embracing hardcore users. In the case of the Toyota Scion, it meant making and marketing a car around young people who like to define themselves by the customisation work they do on their automobiles.
• Activate the community: The point, of course, goes back to handing apparent power to the consumer where the user would become the producer and distributor of content. This does not, however, mean letting the consumer take over completely.

American Express was a good example here of energising a community of affluent individuals around its Black Card. While the services of the card could be found with any bank, American Express had used the exclusivity of the financial instrument to create a virtual country club.

Pfizer was another example for sponsoring “Sermo,” a community for doctors. The forum for 35,000 medical professionals helps Pfizer develop and market its products simply by listening to physicians.

• Integrate the experience: Rayport goes on to state: “Mandate a unified field theory; it is no longer an option to ignore integration. Digital is like a patchwork of hundreds of channels, and successful brands will be the ones that figure out how to work comfortably in all of those networks.’

The best brains and talent in brand building and communication will come together with specialist advisors on new media apertures and manage to drive relevant content in these new formats.

• Stop worrying and get down to the trenches: I have in recent months pushed for the need to embrace digital strategies in all that we ad people do. Digital communication is not that different in some of the challenges it sets for ad people. Media partners would surely need to have the right channels and know-how of where and how these ads are placed so that, under strict rules of engagement, the consumer adds his own voice to the sum of stories that a brand will stand for.

The smart ad group will start building formats and platforms that can help him talk to these consumers. It could be a radio station, a magazine, a great film company, a mobile game, or even a virtual dance routine.

It will all come back to how many parts of a communication partner’s value chain can impact a brand’s touch-points. Ads-R-Us is more about a wagon train of goods and delivery than it is of the consumer as a driver.

Ad agencies and marketers will still drive brands, but they need to ensure the consumer is in for the drive. But then that’s really nothing new, is it?

WHEN Sir Edmund Hillary passed away, he received a state’s funeral. He was the first man to scale the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest. History is made when the first man went to the moon and, when our first angkasawan experimented teh tarik in space. Despite controversy theories surrounding the moon hoax, Neil Armstrong is still the first man to set foot on the moon.

Appeal to the heart and win first place where it matters

Just the other day, a group of non-admen friends were at the mamak talking about ads that have made them smile. That “Hoe wong, hoe wong yellow fellow” is such a popular and well loved figure – the first “potato-shaped”, wholly yellow, very cute and loveable Malaysian-made icon/loyal friend who has touched the hearts and minds of ordinary folks both young and old.

For 7-year-old Rachel, her wish was for our yellow friend to accompany her to school. He is certainly known to bring luck during Chinese New Year, get invitations to birthday parties and even attended weddings. Often the brilliance of a good campaign is in its ability to touch and impact people with honesty to the brand (in the case of the Yellow Fellow, promising to cover you wherever you go) True to his winsome ways, in 2006, the DiGi Yellow Coverage Fellow campaign won Malaysia’s first gold and silver at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards.

You can be first and be well remembered, but won’t you rather strive to be first and be well loved.

First to love its people

In 2007, Perodua launched their 7th car, born out of love. ViVA loves you. Corny? Not at all when you look at the whole automotive industry in 2007.

Never has owning a car been so painful with oil prices hitting historic high, faster inflation in 2007 (CPI up by 3.6%), higher toll charges, the glut in car supply pushing down used car demand and trade-in values to new lows and tighter bank credit, resulting in higher interest rates. In 2007, motor sales were at an all-time low while motorists’ frustrations with the industry were at an all-time high.

Sometimes, all you need is love.

To succeed in this climate, we needed to do more than just highlight the car’s star features; we had to romance disgruntled car buyers, remind people of the forgotten pleasures of owning a car. People didn’t need cars with grunting machines, outlandish claims and skinny models sprawled over their hoods.

What they needed more than ever was empathy and love. A car that listens to different people’s needs, and makes room for each of them. A car that gives people the space and flexibility they crave. One that is generous with extras, lowest in fuel consumption in its class and still accessible to the rakyat who are trying to make a decent life for their families. A car’s advertisement campaign that promises honesty and above all, care.

To resurrect a declining category, we turned to the one force capable of working miracles - the first car campaign that promises to love its rakyat – “ViVA Loves You”.

First to be nominated for Malaysia’s First Asia Pacific Effie Award

An accolade to anticipate from the “ViVA Loves You” campaign is the nomination of Malaysia’s first Asia Pacific Effie Award.

Introduced in 1968, Effie is a global benchmark for creative effectiveness. It celebrates campaigns that have met or exceeded their objectives by strong storytelling and persuasive results. Effie has become THE award to win in 35 countries on five continents.

To quote Bill Bernbach: “You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You’ve got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in the gut. Because if they don’t feel it, nothing will happen.”

When the brand is sincere and simply communicates a message that touches consumers’ hearts, the campaign does more than just sell. In ViVA’s case, 15,818 units of Perodua ViVA were registered in the first three months; more than the total launch sales of all three competitive models launched during that period.

With the successful launch of Perodua’s two winning models, Myvi in 2005 and ViVA in 2007, Perodua elevated itself to the No. 1 position overtaking its big brother.

Few campaigns win first place in consumers’ hearts. They are those that are built on the foundation of a strong idea, crafted to stir the hearts of its consumers, and these are the only ones that will be remembered.

As a parting note, I will leave you with this quote from Bernbach, “Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.”