Brand managers should consider all mediums

Saturday April 11, 2009
Brand managers should consider all mediums
By THEAN LEE CHENG


BRAND managers must consider various forms of communication with customers in today’s challenging times.

These include branding exercises like events, interviews, business partnerships and tie-ups, other than the normal type of advertising over the airwaves or the print media.

These type of exercises, together with advertising, can help maintain brand presence, says Media Prima Bhd group CEO, TV networks, Datuk Seri Ahmad Farid Ridzuan.

He says while it is natural for companies, large and small, to be tempted to cut their advertising budget, it is imperative that they maintain a market presence.

“Advertising, depending on how it is done, can be a form of branding. Companies must stay relevant and be in touch.

“Bad times do not last forever and when the upswing comes, a brand may lose its position if it does not maintain that presence although it may be at the top,” says Farid.


Datuk Seri Ahmad Farid Ridzuan says companies must stay relevant and be in touch.

He says there is a tendency for some big brands to cut their budgets only to be upstaged by second and third-placed challengers.

Speaking more as a marketer rather than a captain of the media industry, Farid says his previous position as executive director of Leo Burnett Advertising Sdn Bhd has allowed him to see how important branding is, especially in today’s economic scenario.

“Yes, in the newspapers and on TV, we read and hear much concerns about the economy. If you talk to bankers, they will be all gloom and doom. But this is not the end. Malaysia and other countries have been through both economic and financial crises before.

“Many have likenend the current situation to the 1929/30s global depression, but do you know how many brands have been built as a result of the recession?”

He notes that AirAsia was set up around the unsettling moments of the Sept 11 attacks by terrorists who hijacked planes to hit their targets. Today, that no-frills airline is going places.

Farid says whether it is the print media, TV, radio, outdoor branding and advertising or other forms of branding exercises, they are willing to offer competitive and integrative packages to meet the budget needs of all industries. “Talk to us,” he says.

Farid says his diverse experience with Celcom, Kodak, DHL and Land & General has given him a big picture of branding while his work at Leo Burnett helped to consolidate that experience and expertise.

Now that he is in the media department, he is once again able to have an overall view of the entire picture and it is from this vintage point that he is speaking today.

“No matter what industry – airline, oil and gas, banking – the principle is to promote, position, distribute and communicate the brand. What is your target market, which segment of the market do you want to capture and what is the value proposition of the brand?

“The ingredients are all the same, it all depends on what dish you want to cook,” says Farid.

He says every product has a life cycle – infant, growth and maturity stage – and in the last stage, there is a tendency for the brand to just fade away. “At this stage, you have to reinvent yourself and go back to that cycle to introduce new elements,” he says.

Taking Kodak as an example, he says the company did not cope with times. It did not foresee the technology that was coming into its path and what consumers wanted. Kodak was subsequently taken over by Nikon.

“Apple computer, however, rode on the ride of change. iPod was very much in touch with customer needs and demand and they came out with iTune, where clients can download songs for free, and that was a brilliant move.

“So it is all about company philosophy and how they foresee market demand and forces.”

Farid says clients want to stretch their dollar. Today’s advertising is more of a hard-sell – like “Buy my product.”

It is a very in-your-face sort of advertising.

“The thematic approach is less of a hard sell, more of a tug-at-your-heart sort of branding and the effects of this form of advertising is more of long term.

“Both approaches complement the branding process. But because of today’s challenges, clients tend to want to maximise their dollar and want a bigger return on investment.”

Farid says as a benchmark, a brand will spend between 3% and 5% of sales of products on branding and expect more than the norm, particularly those in the household goods segment.

On branding and the new media which uses mobile technology, he says TV remains the fundamental platform. There will be a convergence of the electronic and new media, he says.