There is no doubt the Singapore government is encouraging its citizens to be creative,which is why they are supporting the creative industry by every means possible.
For instance, it was shocking (at least to me) to see ads that are provocative towards competitors in the local scene, or ads that contain literal (and limited graphical) notions of sexuality in their artwork and messages.
However, companies today are still not receptive towards the true concept of branding and advertising. This is especially true for local SMEs where the Directors or Proprietors are entrepreneurs of an older generation. These business veterans believe that quality and reputation precedes the importance of building a brand. They appear to be doubtful during presentations and gets startled upon seeing the quotation.
Photo: GUCCI bags are expensive because of branding. By Arthur Yip
The veteran mindset:
1) My product/service is good and speaks for itself
2) Business is about connections and/or networking
3) I can survive just on my loyal customers
4) Advertising and Branding is a non-tangible neo-concept, is it worth so much?
5) We can produce our own marketing materials
6) Anything goes as long as it brings in profit
We have to agree that reputation and the quality of the product itself can determine how well the product will sell. But what happens if the competitor advertise and promote their products aggressively on all possible channels of communications? Very soon, your loud and persistent rival will silence your desperate cry to reach out.
In the marketing perspective, your target market needs to know about your product and services first before they take action to try it. In the Branding perspective, your target market needs to understand the benefits your company offers before they come to a decision to choose your brand over others.
Why Branding?
When the market is small and infested with competition, your business needs to stand out and it takes more than just fanciful or innovative products and services to achieve that. Business is about profiting and contrary to the veteran’s mindset, branding does bring about better profits for the company.
Branding adds value to the organization
Branding enables you to price your products and services differently from the “standard” market rate. Very good examples would be how Designer Labels are priced at the upper-tier despite low manufacturing cost, and how advertising on The Tatler cost so much more than advertising on 8 Days.
If Branding is carried out effectively, with the right message communicated to the right audience, and with the correct positioning strategy implemented in the market, we can tell our target market that “Yes! We are worth this much”.
The worth that branding adds to an organization can be valuated and underwritten by certified accountants, lawyers and relevant authorities. A successful brand can add value to your business when it comes to the Merger & Acquisition (M&A) stage. In simple terms, investors will have to pay more for the value of the brand.
This would cause Shareholder Values increase. Good news to the finance folks!
Branding adds value for your customers
In a Branding Campaign, we look into three major systems within your business; Communications Systems, Action Systems and Environment Systems.
When these three Systems are all altered, implemented and executed to meet the set Branding objective(s), we will see an integrated approach to Branding that inevitably influences the orientation of customer service in the Action Systems and Environment Systems. Factors within the systems, to name a few: the service environment, the standards of service, the process of providing the service. These should be “designed” to provide customers with the most exceptional level of customer service.
This would also mean that Branding involves the contemporary concept of Experiential Marketing (more on this concept).
Branding extends the Business/Product Life Cycle
Branding a company is different from branding a product. But for the purpose of establishing a common understanding, I shall use as an example a business that is very dependent on one primary product/service: A new startup.
In such a company, both the business and product will go through the Product Life Cycle: Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline (see note at bottom on difference between Business Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle).
What happens when the product reaches the Decline stage? Logically, development of new products must take place before the maturity stage of the former product, otherwise improvements and complementary products have to be introduced quickly.
One must understand that a strong and successful brand depends heavily on the core product no matter which stage they’re at. If branding is executed the right way, the growth and maturity stage can be extended, lengthening the Product Life Cycle.
And because Branding is a progressive and continuous effort, it adds value to both the customer and organization at all stages.
An extension of the Product Life Cycle gives the business enough time to create complementary products, introduce upgrades and improvements, or create new products before the original product becomes absolutely obsolete.
Conclusion
Branding is more than just fanciful design of logo and promotional materials. It brings about benefits that only those with a vision for long-term businesses can see. Organisations should not take such matters into their own hands unless they have well-informed, well-educated and experienced staff to handle this aspect of the business.
Lastly, one should never underestimate the power of Branding or downplay professionals in this line.
At the end of the day, the industry of Branding and Advertising is there for a reason and hopefully in the near future, we can see more understanding and acceptance among the old school of thoughts.
Note: There are no scholarly papers or academist that has ever defined the difference between Business Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle. The standard PLC published in HBR by Levitt in 1965 have been the standard educational resource to understanding Product Life Cycle.
The emergence of new theories such as Business Life Cycle and even Industrial Life Cycle came in later years where in some cases graphical notations are used to define the pattern rather than a fixed 4-stage cycle. Very much similar to the Product Life Cycle, the Business Life Cycle is differentiated with an additional “Inspiration” or Development Stage that comes before the Introduction Stage.
So, are Products and Services meant to die somehow? Highlighting one significant turn-of-event in the studies of Marketing and Product Development, jeans did not go the way of the dinosaurs as was predicted back then in the 1990s. Sales dropped and a younger generation turned to other fabrics over denim but jeans has prevailed till this day. This is where we can see how Branding, Marketing and Product Development have saved the day for Jeans manufacturers.
About The Author
Timothy C.L Ng is the Managing Director of Hexa Megan Media Pte Ltd and one of the directors in Innopakz Pte Ltd, a trading company whose parent company is based in Shanghai, China. He is experienced in the field of Marketing and Advertising, and have been actively involved in the planning and implementation of events on a voluntary basis. From planning to execution of a Marketing Strategy or Campaign, the process is described by him to be ” as entertaining as game consoles”.
His entrepreneurial journey began when he started his own e-shop selling Japanese Street Labels and Taiwanese imports back when he’s still studying in the Polytechnic. He gained further experiences through participation in other start-ups and joint-ventures where he faced multiple set-backs and success. Currently, he is planning on a charity event to help the children between the borders of Vietnam and Cambodia.
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Douban, one of the most innovative and largest book, movie and music rating site in China, raised US$50m in Series C from Sequoia, Bertelsmann Asia Investments and Trustbridge Partners.
I remembered that back in February, I had a conversation with some friends from Google discussing on what Google could do in China. We were talking about Group buying service, and I said that’s market Google China should look into, but instead of doing a Groupon liker, a group-buying aggregator site might be the best and easiest entry for Google China. And in a meeting with Marissa Mayer when she visited Shanghai with a group of young product managers, she also asked for advice on Google’s focus in China, I said one is Android market, the other is an aggregator service for Chinese group-buying.
I guess in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, every young man knows 
