Creating awareness
The Star
November 18, 2007

AS Tony Savarimuthu, vice president of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents of Malaysia (4As), puts it: For Malaysian brands to compete globally, they first need to establish a respected standard comprising global and local benchmarks.

This allows both established and growing brands to question what they are doing and see if they are actually making a difference or merely peering into the brand world from afar.

Brands should be built in such a way that they connect with consumers via unique and fearless communications.

The Malaysia’s Most Valuable Brands (MMVB) project is meant to provoke a national debate on the brands’ economic usefulness and what it means in the consumer market. And because it is something that is directly relevant to the economy, it cannot be taken just as it is.

This year 4As has chosen to collaborate with Interbrand – the world’s most respected and accepted source – to do the valuation of Malaysia’s public-listed companies that have credible and publicly available financial information. Interbrand has valued over 4,000 of the world’s leading brands, many of which have an aggregate value of more than US$500bil. Interbrand has also conducted similar studies in 12 other countries, including China and Taiwan.

4As president Datuk Vincent Lee said at a press conference: “This is a start towards putting Malaysian brands on the global map.”

In a recent study by Interbrand, a leading brand consultancy, Malaysia’s top brands are worth RM56.5bil.

Interbrand strategy director Andrew Martschenko said 2/3s of the world’s wealth were attached to the top corporate brands in Western countries, reflecting the significant relationship between brands and wealth.

“This is not another contest to rank companies, which would just confuse the brand owners. There is no open entry or submission to be in the list. It is an independent evaluation and we look at all companies equally by judging their financial statements and brand strengths,” he said.

Judgment was based on financial analysis, brand analysis and brand strength, explained Martschenko, adding that the top 30 companies had been short-listed from 50. The Role of Branding Index represents the percentage of intangible earnings that is attributable to the brand. It is based on an assessment of the individual drivers that influence customer choice (in preference) to an alternative and the influence the brand has on each of them.

For example, we look at the role the brand plays in driving consumer preference. Consumers are willing to pay a greater premium for fragrance products such as perfumes, thus the brand plays a significantly greater role. In contrast with bulk chemicals, the role of brand is not as significant and other drivers such as price and convenience have a greater impact instead.

While the 4As do not expect everyone to agree with the Top 30 most valuable brands list or the values – the 4As needed to ensure that we used.

Rather than the top 50 or top 100 list, it is believed by the 4As the top 30 brands was an appropriate cut-off. Interbrands’ valuations made for a study that proved both credible and meaningful.

Malaysian companies in branding need to have a disciplined approach, hire the right talent who can steer the company towards the right direction and work with marketing partners, agencies or individuals who truly know their brief inside out. Being backed up by real experience and a resistance to the temptation to be safe will make things work out. The main challenge is to step up and allow your brand to speak with a fresh, motivating voice and inspire consumers!

“That is important in order to position Malaysian brands globally,” Lee said.

Companies that made the list should celebrate the achievement as well as align their bar of success to it for future evaluation and investment. For the others brands that did not make the list, the study should serve as inspiration or a meaningful benchmark.

If the Government continues its funding, the MMVB will be occurring on a yearly basis. 4As plans to do the next one once the financial year of 2007 ends.

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