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Tuesday Sep 24, 2024
Wednesday, 16 March 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Martin Roll regarded as the Asian Branding Guru and Author of the Global Best-Seller 'Asian Brand Strategy' will be in Sri Lanka next week under the auspicious of The Management Club to share key insights to strategic brand building with Sri Lankan CEOs and marketers.
Daily FT is an official print partner for the two events on 22 March including a forum with top CEOs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Cinnamon Grand. Here are excerpts of an interview with Martin Roll..jpg)
Q: What made you chose a career of consulting and mentoring?
A: I have run the ‘Martin Roll Company’ for 10 years and we are now at a level where we pick and choose the global clients we want to work for. Consulting and mentoring is intellectual stimulation; you get to meet leaders from almost all industries and you advice top-notch business leaders from across the globe. In Asia for example, there is still a huge gap between aspirations and actual knowledge and capabilities in the brand and marketing field. We serve to fill this gap by consulting Chief Marketing Officers, CEOs and board of directors.
Q: What do you think is the single most important mantra that a corporate boardroom should embrace? And why?
A: Asian cultures have always valued the long-term aspects in almost any aspect of life. Asian boardrooms should use this unique strength to influence them in creating more successful brands – but it requires a different mindset in the Asian boardroom.
A strong brand is characterised by a unique brand promise (the customer focus) and an outstanding brand delivery (the organisational system and performance behind the promise). The brand promise and the brand delivery must be consistently balanced in order to build and sustain strong brand equity. The modern brand-driven organisation is characterised by three distinct characteristics which set it apart from less brand-focused organisations:
Companies must ensure that everyone in the company is properly aligned with the brand values with the right mindset and belief. The entire company and its multiple and cross-functional actions and activities should be channeled towards this goal.
Internally, this comprehensive task of aligning and managing customer touch points cannot be left to or even controlled successfully by marketing departments alone. The boardroom should take a more active role in the cross-functional orientation of marketing in the Asian organisation.
Externally, the Asian business leaders can benefit tremendously by representing and leading their brands by example. Asian business leaders can help to build their brand portfolios by appearing more outside the boardroom, and acting as the primary spokesperson of the brand strategy and vision, internally and externally. This can add tremendously to the success of the brand and also be cost-effective in many instances.
It is important to note that marketing function and discipline has come under increasing pressure to demonstrate financial results. Boardrooms must recognise this development and act accordingly. The first change is related to the role of marketing. As marketing is increasingly taking place along the entire value chain, marketing is not the responsibility of the marketing function alone. Instead, everyone in the organisation is involved. This requires a more cross-functional orientation of marketing, with a solid understanding of all the elements in the value chain including skills within engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, finance and accounting. This might require an upgrade of skill sets and ongoing training of the marketing personnel. The second change required is related to the outcome of marketing. For the marketing function to become an integrated part of the boardroom agenda, the key issue for the future is to focus on demonstrating the financial consequences of marketing expenditures.
Q: What made you focus on ‘Asian Branding’ and what potential do you see for Asian brands on an international platform.
A: Most Asian firms still view branding as advertising or logo design. If firms are to benefit from branding, they must recognise that it impacts the entire business – the structure, goals, attitude and the very outlook of those in the boardroom. Managers will need to see branding not as an appendage to the ongoing business, but rather as an infusion which seeps through the very spirit of the organisation, as a healthy return on investment (ROI). In fact, it will require a shift in focus and priority for every functional aspect of the organisation aligned around multiple customer touch points.
Successful branding must encapsulate the entire company and its’ multiple and cross-functional actions and activities. When everyone in the organisation serves the customers and creates customer value, then everyone is doing marketing regardless of function or department.
This comprehensive task of aligning and managing customer touch points cannot be left to or even controlled successfully by the marketing departments alone. All customer touch points have to be aligned and optimised around the brand. This calls for a more cross-functional orientation of marketing in the Asian organisation and at the same time dedicated boardroom attention to ensure it happens.
Hence branding is not a one-off session run by a separate marketing function by mid-level marketing managers but a truly integrated part of the boardroom strategy along the lines of finance, operations, human resources and legal issues. This will require a major shift in how the Asian boardroom and corporate management teams are structured and operated.
Q: In your book ‘Asian Brand Strategy’, you speak of cultural icons and how ‘iconicity does not happen by chance, but rather has to be carefully planned and executed. How well do you think this planning and execution has been implemented so far in Asia?
A: All companies aspire to build brands that eventually get etched in the culture of the society and become cultural icons. But very few companies are able to achieve this iconic status. Contrary to popular perception, iconicity does not happen by chance, but rather has to be carefully planned and executed. Asia is yet to create more strong global iconic brands. Disregarding Japan and Korea, there are less than 10 Asian global brands today.
A look at some of the most iconic brands in history such as Coca-Cola, Harley Davidson, Chanel, IBM, Giorgio Armani, L’Oreal, Louis Vuitton, Apple, Amanresorts and Singapore Airlines reveals some very common characteristics.
First of all, they have all been running profitable and very well-driven operations. Secondly, they used differentiation to build and defend solid market positions. Constant innovation was part of this and an integrated component of their company culture. But a third dimension, a strong emotional connection, made a huge impact. They have all been able to build and sustain very strong emotional bonds with their customer and stakeholders. A combination of these aspects will enable a brand to become iconic.
Q: You say that ‘Brand equity is a new asset in Asia’. How should Asian brands leverage on this asset for the long run?
A: Branding enhances shareholder value, it can become a catalyst for better leadership, it enables to drive a shared vision throughout the organisation, and it can help to balance short- and long-term perspectives and performance.
Singapore Airlines is one of the best examples of this – they are brilliant in balancing well these issues. Samsung is another example of a company which moved from a pure diversified manufacturer towards a company with strong cash flows from branding. Coca-Cola, P&G and Gillette (now owned by P&G), Starbucks, L’Oreal and LVMH are other global brands which are very well-managed and which provide solid cash flows from brands and portfolio of brands.
Brand equity is the combined measure of brand strength and consists of three sets of metrics: knowledge, preference and financial as has been explained in Asian Brand Strategy. Each of the measures under these three metrics is critical and the boardroom must ensure that the brand portfolio scores high in each of these parameters to optimise the financial outcome from strong brands.
For branding to play a pivotal role in the company, it has to have a strong support from the CEO and corporate management. Only when the corporate strategy is aligned with the branding strategies will the company attain a unified direction both internally and externally. Further brand equity can be optimally leveraged only if branding is allowed and supported to play the following roles:
When the CEO and the corporate management team actively involve themselves in and nurture branding, the above roles of branding can be effectively utilised. By being a strong brand evangelist, a CEO can define and defend the actions of a brand. For branding to realise its full potential in any company, employees across functions must be educated about the significance of branding and how branding affects each function in any company. Such a cross-functional training would not only allow employees to understand the strategic contribution of their own part of the work but would also facilitate a better participation in various activities.
A disciplined cross functional training programme would then lead to a favorable atmosphere that would allow a whole generation of leaders to be groomed. As more employees are trained beyond their functional duties, they tend to develop qualities and skill sets that can prove useful in building strong leadership traits.
Thus for companies to maximise their leverage from branding, branding must be elevated to the boardroom level and led by the CEO.
