Marketing and selling in tough Economic conditions:

Where is the brand?

[Article 30]

Series by:

Prasanna Perera, Marketing & Management Consultant, Chartered Marketeer, CIM U.K.

With all the pressure on achieving sales targets, I wonder if corporates have forgotten about their BRANDS and brand development. It is easy to take brands for granted and neglect brand development. In the short-term this may work, but the results in the long-term could be disastrous. The purpose of this article is to refocus on the power of brands.

The World’s Most Valuable Brands

According to Inter-brand, the top 10 brands for 2009 is as follows:

When these rankings are analyzed it is clear that the US continues to dominate global branding. What is the reason? Two fold - one reason is that US companies have financial resources required for brand building.

The second reason is the willingness and acknowledgement of the importance of brand building. Hence, to build brands, ability and willingness are both important. Another important insight these rankings provide is that the top five positions have remained unchanged over 2008 and 2009. Hence, we can conclude that strong brands are in a better position to withstand economic downturn than weaker brands.

What about Sri Lankan Brands?

The sad truth is that Sri Lankan brands do not feature at all in global brand rankings. Why? To my mind there are several reasons.

- Confusing a brand with a name of a product

- Not being committed to building brands

- Not taking a long-term perspective in brand building

- Lack of financial resources required to build brands

- Non-marketeers holding CEO/MD positions in most corporates

- Over emphasis on sales of products and not brands

- Not taking calculated risks to build global brands

My advice to Sri Lankan corporates is as follows :

* Do not be afraid to take calculated risks to build brands

* Believe that your brands can conquer international markets

* Invest in human resources (competent marketeers and brand custodians)

* The CEO must be a brand evangelist and brand advocate. Take the examples of Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Tony Fernandes, Akio Morita, Jack Welsh.

* Take a long-term view towards brand building. (It is not a quick fix activity)

* Invest in your brands to build brand value, brand equity and brand preference

* Think Big. Most successful global brands started small, but the brand owners had greater and grander visions.

“Ceylon Tea” and “SLC” (Sri Lanka Cricket)

To my mind these are two world class Sri Lankan brands. Have we done enough to build them into global powerhouses? The answer is sadly NO. Why? Probably not visioned from a branding perspective but from a financial perspective. “Ceylon Tea” is world class and perceived as the best by the global consumer. All that is needed is a globally integrated marketing communication campaign to position “Ceylon Tea” as the best brand of tea in the world. (Please note-a globally integrated marketing communication campaign!)

In Cricket, Sri Lanka has won the World Cup and many other titles over the past 10 - 15 years. Hence “SLC” is a powerful brand that can help not only Sri Lankan sport but tourism and foreign investment as well. Why not strengthen the destination brand - Sri Lanka, by focusing on three strategic pillar brands namely, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Ceylon Tea and Sri Lanka Tourism (SLT)?

Message to Sri Lankan corporates and their Marketeers

It is worthwhile remembering what the great advertising Guru David Ogilvy once said of brand building :

“Any damn fool can put a name on a product, but it requires a genius to build a brand.”

Please don’t confuse naming a product with a brand. A brand is much more than a name - it has character, personality, values, loyalty, relationships and many more. Also recognize your brand champions and provide them the required resources to build brands. How can a brand champion build a brand, if he / she has their hands tied? Always consider brand building as an “investment” and not as an “expense.” It takes years to build brands, not days and months.

Conclusion

Sir Lanka as a country is facing her “moment-of-truth.” This is the best opportunity to take Sri Lankan brands into the global arena. The simple truth is that to build a strong economy you need strong brands. The best example is India, which boasts of global brands such as Tata, Titan, Kingfisher, Bajaj, Maruti Suzuki to name a few.