Increasingly, brands from Asia have ambitions to become global household names. Building a successful name in the international market is much more complex and requires a systematic approach. What does it take to succeed?

Brand owners are increasingly aware of the value of strategic marketing and how ‘invisible’ brand equity can boost the value of a company. Yet they can stumble over implementing great brand strategies for various reasons.

Some common examples including failing to take into account their top decision maker’s vision, a company’s long-term business goals (as opposed to short term sales targets) and their internal stakeholders. This gets more complex when your brand enters the global playing field.

Often, when we advise clients on identifying their brand DNA and brand messaging, we find ourselves also called upon to advise on how to manage their internal communications and roll-out processes.

One step at a time

Here are some basic steps. Obviously, each company requires its own approach so this list is meant to simply serve as a starting point.

1. Appoint a third party and objective consultant to conduct a comprehensive brand audit and competitive mapping across the regions/sectors you operate in. Conduct a SWOT analysis of your brand. Prioritise your stakeholders and your communications channels.
2. Appoint a small global/regional steering team of not more than five people, comprising your CEO, key stakeholders and your consultant. Ensure that they are thought leaders and positive drivers of performance. Identify your key business goals by region / sector.
3. Have your steering team review the analysis done in step 1, and evaluate it in light of your business plans.
4. Develop a strong and unique brand DNA and three key brand messages that act as ‘pillars’ of all your marketing plans that are tightly aligned with your business goals.
5. Appoint and educate your internal brand ambassadors. Give them a stake in the success of your brand building initiatives and marketing plans.
6. Set marketing goals for each business unit, and identify your sales goals. Shortlist marketing communications programs / partners / materials to support these goals.
7. Identify any key global accounts or customer groups. Create ongoing customer relationship management programs that are evaluated periodically to ensure they stay relevant.
8. Plan, budget, synchronise and roll out marketing and communications plans by region or by stakeholder group. Set some measurements for evaluation every six months.

Building a strong brand takes a minimum of two years, and it is important to build in measurements for key performance indicators into your marketing plans from the onset. For example, this may involve tracking sales against your marketing expenditure by month, by events, by leads from search engine marketing and even by monitoring and analyzing your media mentions.

Constantly evaluate your marketing plans and don’t hesitate to make any adjustments along the way.

For more information, please contact Manifesto.

Image courtesy of Madison Avenue Journal.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.