Making brands that sell

Making brands that sell

Bizweek, The Star, 24 September 2005

By Sabry Tahir

Last month Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing presented a sample of 100 brands and 1,000 designs to Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as a gesture of his complete support for the latter’s initiatives and vision for Malaysia to excel as a major global brand.

These creations by the students of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in Cyberjaya were showcased in an exhibition called National Branding & Packaging Innovation Exhibition & Conference 2005.

The show, which becomes the country’s largest showcase of new brands and designs, came barely a year since Lim’s discussion with the Prime Minister on how to upgrade the branding capabilities of the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the rural industries.

It also included the display of the latest packaging machinery and hardware from 16 exhibitors, including printers and suppliers of environment-friendly packaging materials.

“The exhibition followed our discussion on initiating programmes, especially for food-producing rural industries, when he came to open the campus last October,” Lim tells Bizweek.

During his first visit, Abdullah briefed Lim on how hard the rural industries strived to come up with their products.

“However, they package their products so poorly that they do not sell enough after the hard work, and the products, especially food, do not last after three days,” he says.

“Branding product does not start with just putting it in a nice package. The quality of the product must first be upgraded, and only then it is wrapped in good packaging so that people can see the difference before and after.”

Likewise, in the branding of Malaysia, Lim says, the nation must move from providing a cheaper alternative to providing a better alternative. Branding must focus on having products and services that are better alternative to those from other more successful countries.

Lim says: “The world’s most successful tourist destinations are some of the most expensive places to stay and shop. However, people like to go to places which are advanced, where they can buy and have good quality goods.”

According to him, the recent branding exhibition and conference was only the beginning. For the SMEs and rural industries to become strong in branding, it requires a concerted effort – the collaboration between the Limkokwing group, the Government and its agencies as well as the industry players – to develop brands that are strong enough to penetrate the global markets.

The process will take years, Lim says. “It is not an easy task to change old habits. It needs more than money can buy. It needs the determination to do it and you cannot rush it. For a new brand to be recalled by customers easily, it takes at least four years.”

Through Wings Creative, the Limkokwing group had been designing packaging for multinational companies like Unilever, Nestle, and GlaxoSmith-Kline for the past 30 years.

Limkokwing’s present activities include collaborations with various other industries, including leather, clothes, furniture and electrical products. Among other things, it is currently working with manufacturers of mobile phones to design the Bluetooth models.

Back to his commitment on the branding campaign, Lim says Limkokwing will leverage on its experience in packaging designs and the newly opened Limkokwing -Malaysia Design Innovation Centre to help the rural industries and SMEs.

The centre will function as a training hub for rural industries. “To start off, we are now conducting tours for various stage governments and federal agencies to familiarise them with the branding and packaging technology,” he says.

It is also working actively with Terengganu, which is currently using the centre for training purposes.

The basic of the training programmes is to get the entrepreneurs to understand branding – they must improve their products and set long-term goals as branding cannot be done successfully overnight.

Lim says: “Work with other states will follow suit.”

On the same day as the branding and packaging conference, Terengganu became the first state to launch its own branding and franchise, which were developed by Limkokwing as well as its professional arm, MDI, in collaboration with the Terengganu Entrepreneur Development Foundation.

After helping with the designing aspect, Limkokwing will still have to provide machinery so that packaging could be produced. Then comes the final stage – marketing and distribution.

“We are looking at providing branding and packaging technology, training, manu-facturing, marketing and brand promotion,” he says.

For marketing, Limkokwing will use, among others, the Internet as a way of marketing products worldwide. Through the Net, the SMEs, though having a few outlets, can reach buyers nationwide.

“We are planning for group visits and during the visits, we will not only go through the process of branding and packaging with them but also train them in the use of new technology,” Lim explains.

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