Staying true to the brand

New Straits Times, 8 October 2005

Innovate and update if you want a brand to stay successful. It’s about being creative and tuned in to the times, with an awareness of quality and design, says Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing to Anthea De Lima.

If you looked up the word “brand” in a dictionary, most entries would tell you that the word is a description of a maker’s name or a trademark and while you may be familiar with many brand names, they are generally associated with products. Some that come quickly to mind are Coke, Levi’s and Nike, among others – perhaps because of successful branding exercises throughout the product’s existence.

These days, branding does not have to apply strictly to products. We know of successfully-branded countries, for instance.

In such cases, when the name of the country pops into our head, we think about what it is famous for.

Take the case of the relatively small Scandinavian country that is Finland. Many of us carry a Nokia phone and we all know where these hi-tech mobile phones originate from.

In a recent interview, Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, president of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology and a well-known creative visionary in his own right, said that a successful brand is one that offered an assurance of quality and a mark of trust.

“At the end of the day, if you have a product, a car, for instance, and it doesn’t run well, it doesn’t run well no matter what brand it carries,” he said, adding that branding is not confined to products.

“Malaysia has become a popular destination for students from abroad because we have created a name for our excellent educational opportunities. Limkokwing University of Technology, for instance, has established a global brand as a creative, vibrant place.

“And as result of this, we have students from 65 countries who make up 40 per cent of our student population,” he said.

Lim said that Malaysia has the potential to be “branded” for other reasons too. “To some extent, a country’s branding is pushed along by the products that it sells. Take South Korea, which is famous for global brands such as Samsung and Hyundai, and Japan, for its electronic goods and car companies such as Toyota and Honda.”

He said that Malaysia could brand car manufacturer Proton to great success. “If the cars that we manufacture are viewed favourably, we have created a successful brand for the country too. Let’s not rely on five pretty girls in national costumes to advertise the diversity of a country. To go forward as a nation, we need to be more creative,” Lim said.

He emphasised the importance of successful branding if Malaysia is to survive in an increasingly global economic climate. “The media may concentrate on the big players and industries in the country but it is the smaller enterprises that drive up economies. Our small and medium industries (SMIs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are in a situation where if they do not choose to innovate, they will be in trouble in as little as five years’ time,” he said.

Lim added that for a long time, the nation’s SMIs were driven along by the government’s encouragement of the manufacturing sector.

“The country’s free trade zones did well but other countries have overtaken us because they work faster and their workforce is cheaper. What we have to do now is to innovate and come up with original designs that will push our brand recognition,” he said.

Lim added that for SMIs and SMEs to continue to keep in tune with the times, managers must be able to adopt fresh and innovative ideas.

“The problem we face with our SMIs and SMEs is that they have not explored fresh ideas for branding and innovation. Instead of looking at ways to sustain their growth, they are content for as long as the tap has not run dry,” he said.

He cited the example of Japan as a country that is rich in innovation. “When you look at Japan, you will see a country that is not rich when it comes to inventions. Instead they have taken the cars, mobile phones, stereo sets and watches and made them better. Their success lies in their ability to innovate and design successfully,” he said.

Lim said that the majority of SMIs and SMEs did not pay attention to branding and design when it came to marketing their products.

“Their profits are poured into diversifying instead of building up a brand name, perhaps because of the cost associated with branding and design. They pay little attention to what may happen in the future.”

Lim acknowledged that part of the nation’s problem with instilling a culture of creativity and design is a result of our educational system. “Our educational system does not teach us how to think. Instead, it teaches conformity. We have to bear in mind that effective branding and creativity can only take place if we have the workforce for it,” he said.

He added: “While we may push SMIs and SMEs in the country, we must recognise the need for change right up to the educational system that we currently have in place. We must promote creative thinking that leads to innovation,” he said.

He emphasised the fact that developed Western countries encouraged creative thinking from a young age. “Their schools encourage design-related work while in Malaysia, we only have art as a creative subject,” he said.

Lim said that the country’s educational system typecasts children from a young age. “This will only change when our system begins to encourage creative thinking. This will eventually lead to knowledge acquisition. It is a chain reaction that should be encouraged,” he said.

There are acknowledgements of the importance of branding, of course, he said. The recent launching of the Terengganu brand and franchise is a big step in the right direction.

He said that the university has been appointed as the research and development centre for branding and packaging of Terengganu products, capacity building for the state’s SMEs and SMIs, brand profiling of the state, and promotion of Terengganu’s products nationwide and worldwide.

“The Terengganu state government expressed an interest in branding the state in order to increase the number of rural entrepreneurs and to raise their competitiveness.

“I am sure that this will make the state a showcase state for excellence and innovation,” he said.

Lim added that Terengganu’s move to “brand” its products is a step in the right direction. “It is a fairly rural state, one where innovation is needed the most. It is an honour to be associated with its efforts and its allows us to practise what we preach.

“Our role is to act as a catalyst and it’s wonderful to be given a chance to create awareness of the importance of innovation to SMEs,” he said.

Copyright © 2012 Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. All Right Reserved.
Designed & maintained by World Wide Web Domination, Centre for Content Creation.