Najib: Build up your brand name
The Star
November 18, 2007

PETALING JAYA: Investing in brand-building can make all the difference between success and failure, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said that having the best products and providing the most excellent services were simply not enough.

“If you neglect branding in today’s media-centric world, then you are in danger of missing the tipping point that separates the great from the good, the excellent from the mediocre, and the runaway successes from the flops,” he added in his speech at the Malaysia’s Most Valuable Brand Gala Night event.

Also present was Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting.

Najib, who presented awards to the top 30 companies rated by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) and Interbrand, said the Government realised that companies faced certain constraints in their brand-building efforts.

However, he urged local manufacturers and marketers to view brand-building as an investment that could add financial value to shareholders and not as an “unnecessary cost”.

“Among the most pressing that needs attention is the attitude of the financial services community in the treatment of brand investment from the accounting point of view,” he said.

Maybank was named the most valuable Malaysian brand in the list.

The others in the top five were Public Bank, Maxis Bhd, Genting and Celcom. The Star was ranked No. 20.

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