Going Global - Asia shows potential for global accounts

By Nicolaus Wilk, Assistant Account Manager, Taiwan
nwilk@golinharris.com


In search of the next big trend and potential pivotal market, marketers need to keep an eye firmly fixed on Asia. As governments across the region place an increasing emphasis on building brands, more and more companies are running global accounts from the area, creating great opportunity for marketing services.

Asia has a unique mix of political systems and economies; religions and cultures; and companies and industries. This mix and match creates a necessity to adapt, resulting in widespread innovation across the region, and bringing with it a prominent role in industrial manufacturing.

In fact, many large Western brands have their products manufactured in Asia through the dreaded process known as outsourcing.

However, Asia is also home to many large brands, having transformed the processes learned through outsourcing into proprietary techniques for own brand production. And, according to a recent study by GolinHarris and FutureBrand, this trend is likely to increase.

In November 2006, GolinHarris and IPG sister company FutureBrand conducted an internal study to see how five Asian countries were promoting domestic brand building, and how this could potentially impact marketing in the region. Several common trends emerged.

1. Asian governments are viewing branding as a key to increasing economic growth. Phrases such as "compete with the globalization of industries," "strengthen industrial linkage for economic growth," and "raise enterprise brand competitiveness in the global market" pepper government strategies. Recognizing the link between brand development and economic growth also creates a great incentive for the governments to ensure the success of their initiatives.

For marketers, these initiatives and link can only mean good news: more new emerging brands. Asia has become a hotbed of high growth companies, each looking to make their mark on the global economy and in consumers' heads. Competition is fierce, but the rewards high. In addition, marketers need to realize the strong link between nationalistic pride and domestic brand growth. Helping the emerging brands first grow at home will ready them for the international market.

2. Asian governments are directly investing in brands through various incentive packages. China, Singapore and Taiwan each hold "brand awards" with cash prizes. Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan provide loans, grants, or direct funding for international marketing.

Recognizing and grabbing these incentives them are yet another service marketers can provide clients. By collaborating with the government, and also by staying abreast of local news and policies, the industry can provide a new and valuable benefit to clients, and can help some marketers stand out in a crowded field.

3. Asian governments recognize the need to monitor brand growth and highlight successful cases. The governments studied each are developing some form of brand tracking tool to measure brand growth. This will not only help convince domestic companies the value of branding, but can also help replicate success.

As the marketing industry strives for continued innovation and accomplishments, national brand monitoring and best practice case studies can help create new benchmarks and foster industry learning. In addition, marketers can develop novel tools to assist the governments in defining brand growth.

4. Asian governments are training youth in branding as a key to sustained brand development. Many of Asia's largest companies are headed by the old guard; resistant to change and not open to branding. The governments have realized that these industry stalwarts will most likely not embrace new branding and marketing techniques, and have thus turned their sights on the next generation of workers, and even youth, to carry the mantle of brand pioneers.

This is a direct benefit to the industry, as a new crop of qualified staff is entering the workforce. Raised during the Internet era, the young workers are quicker to embrace the latest technologies and products marketers are rolling out. Additionally, government-organized training sessions provide a new platform for industry promotion and recruiting.

With broad government, industry, company, and consumer support, brands from Asia are now taking their seat among the world's top tier. Marketing campaigns are growing in size, and as government initiatives mature, GolinHarris expects more Asian companies to start developing global campaign accounts.

To assist in this development, GolinHarris maintains a network of 10 offices across the Asian region. GolinHarris not only strategically helps local brands step onto the global stage, but also supports Western brands in entering the region and grabbing market share. For more information, please visit www.golinharris.com