Unbiased brand-rating award in the works

Tuesday, 23 February 2010 16:56

BRANDING is the wealth of a country. Brands create wealth. The value of a brand ties up with the stock market. If the brand value goes up, share prices also go up," said 4As president Datuk Vincent Lee. According to him, the Malaysian industry is well aware of how important brand building is, but not many are aware of the steps to building a brand and there is no correlation between the industry and government’s efforts.

by Eva Yeong, The Sun Daily

As such, by working with Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade), Lee hopes that the Putra Brand Awards – touted to be the only true brand award in Malaysia – will help bring the government and the industry in line with each other as well as to create a brand-savvy culture among practitioners in the country.

The Putra Brand Awards, scheduled for March 12, is also expected to overcome the issue of unscrupulous awards.

"Clients from 2As and BAM (Branding Association of Malaysia) complained to us and the media about unscrupulous awards going on, where they have to pay RM20,000 for a table at the ceremony in order to receive the award. This is a scam," said Lee.

"Some awards are organised by people who have never worked a day in the industry, who have no transparent methodology and no judging panel. They give away awards to make money."

These unscrupulous awards result in branding awards being given to companies which have never put effort into branding while those which worked hard in building brands but refuse to pay do not get awards. Ultimately, the consumers are the ones getting duped.

Running an award costs big money, but with the collective support of the 4As, MAA (Malaysian Advertisers Association), BAM, MSA (Malaysian Specialists Association), Matrade and Pulse Group, as well as 6,000 consumers who participated in the survey, the Putra Brand Awards promises to be an honest and unbiased brand-rating award, providing a true barometer to measure the many brands in Malaysia.

Lee said there would be sponsorships from the media and each table at the ceremony will only cost around RM3,000.

"Even if they don’t buy any seat, they will still get the award. They don’t have to pay to win our awards," he said.

"Building brands is not about money, it’s about how refreshing your ideas are. Your brand’s DNA is where you start from," he explained.

While building a strong foundation for the brand is important, what is equally important is the quality of the product.

"Your products and services have to be superior. If you make a lot of noise but inside it’s all bullshit, your brand will die," he added.

Once the product and services are right, there is still the problem of consistency.

"Every time there is a new brand manager, the brand direction of the company changes.

"Brand managers who want to put their own stamp or mark in the industry end up killing the brand, because they change for the sake of changing," said Lee.

He said consistency is very difficult to maintain. Sometimes, because a company may want to invest in different areas, its focus is diverted and that is how it ends up being inconsistent.

"Sometimes, it is an ego problem with the brand managers. Next year, we may introduce an award for brand manager of the year. Hopefully this will solve the problem (of egoistic brand managers)," he said.

The media also play an important role in exposing unscrupulous and biased branding awards, said Lee.

"When the media team up with various awards, it is important for them to check the people behind these awards. Tying up with an unscrupulous award and giving it coverage is a way of supporting it," he said, adding that it ultimately cheats the audience who are also the consumers.

The inaugural Putra Brand Awards will be held on March 12 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur where brands across 18 categories will be awarded.