SPEECHES:
Announcement speech by
Tony Savarimuthu, Vice President of 4As
Tuesday September 18, 2007
Good Morning
YBhg Datuk Vincent Lee – 4As President
Mr. Peter Das – President of the Malaysian Advertisers Association
Valued Sponsors and Supporters of the Malaysia’s Most Valuable Brands Project
Friends and Industry Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media.
Datuk Vincent, 4As president who initiated this project has led it with great passion – so that one day many Malaysian brands will not just be OE suppliers but be able to truly compete on the global stage.
Please allow me a few minutes to explain why we embarked on this project. Firstly – this project’s purpose is rooted in the belief that real branding strategies act as an engine of growth for our economy. The strongest brands in the world reside in the world’s most powerful and progressive economies:
Coca-cola, Microsoft, IBM, GE, Intel, Nokia, Toyota, Disney. McDonald’s and Mercedes.
You can see the effect brands such as these have on both popular culture and business. Effective branding strategies create demand and top-line growth for corporations - and beyond its business purpose they have a deep impact on society in both cultural and social terms.
The 4As, MAA and all our valued Media Partners who participate in this project firmly belief that Malaysian brands need to play a fundamental role in the economy and perform on the global stage if we are to achieve our vision of being a fully developed nation.
For a start – there are some very fundamental questions to be answered:
Do we genuinely belief that investments in brand building produce a return to shareholders or are they an expense to be dispensed with in the interest of cost management?
How do we actually value a brand (and when we do that) - is that measurement standard universally acceptable and applicable.
InterBrand – a company appointed by the 4As to measure and produce the list of Malaysia’s Most Valuable Brands have established a reputation in this area and pioneered brand valuation techniques. They had recently released the list of the Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the world in association with Businessweek magazine. They are here to answer some of the technical questions in this area.
On November 16, the 4As and Interbrand in association with our media partners (Astro, TV3, The Edge, The Star, Berita Harian, Utusan Malaysia and Sin Chew Jit Poh) will release the list of the 30 Most Valuable Brands in Malaysia. This is not an award nor a beauty parade – there is no winner’s podium here. It is an economic exercise using an empirically tested method to value the true worth of Malaysian brands. Every brand that makes this list has taken a route that places emphasis and value on the true measure of a brand.
The total measured and undiscounted advertising spend in this country will reach RM5 billion in 2007. The total market in our estimation is worth DOUBLE that if you take into account all other marketing activities to support both product and brand marketing in this country. But are we creating superior brands or branding ghettoes?
There is a great need for both inventive and innovative branding and marketing strategies. Great brands don’t just innovate in terms of new product development but through superior brand marketing of already existing product concepts. They spend valuable time to sharpen their knowledge of markets and then implement ideas more successfully through innovative branding, marketing and design strategies.
The recent success of the emerging automobile, consumer electronics and consumer durables brands have largely been driven by their ability to innovate from a marketing and branding standpoint – from nouveu design concepts to sharper customer retention and loyalty programmes.
Samsung, LG and Hyundai have all made the coveted list of the Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the World It is our hope that one day – our own brands – Petronas, YTL, Air Asia or perhaps Bonia, Padini, Perodua or Proton will make this coveted list.
It is a journey that will involve embracing the discipline of Brand Strategy and Marketing.
In today’s global economic order, one does not always have to innovate from a product standpoint but innovate through smart, marketing, design and branding strategies.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.
