Comments on: Brand Strategy a World Apart

By: Joanne

Joanne — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:01:17 +0000

A lack of focus for a business will confuse customers. By focusing on one thing you can build a lot of strength, but trying to do everything will dilute your brand. This would also make the business as a whole much more difficult to manage. Successful business is about finding a weakness in the market, not doing what everyone else is doing to a low standard because your business makes everything from cars to food products.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:09:05 +0000

In Asia, especially China, a certain level of ignorance surrounds brands. I have seen people put BMW stickers on Corsas and people will believe it is a BMW. But that contradicts why companies would fail if they expand into new territory. We would see it as a bit odd for a company like in your example, Harley making fork lifts, but in China no one would care or even notice. It seems only well established brands are recognised and respected in China like Suning or JOC.

By: GCB

GCB — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:48:41 +0000

wouldn’t necessarily agree that building brands in Asia or from Asia is any different from how America or Europe have been building brands for a long time. the core of it – ‘establishing a strong relationship with consumers’ – remains the same. the differences we experience here when building Chinese brands is that Chinese brand owners often expect a very quick return on their investments. the most exhausting part of this job is to find a mutual understanding of what ‘a brand is’, ‘what branding is’, and ‘how long the process may take before it adds value (and money!)’ to the company. but once this has been agreed there is so much room for creativity creating (untouched) Chinese brands. it’s extremely exciting!

By: Whisper | The Weekly B.S.

Whisper | The Weekly B.S. — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:24:20 +0000

[...] The Marketing Fresh Peel – Oklahoma City, USA Brand Strategy a World Apart When it comes to building strong brands in Asia, [...]

By: Todor Christov

Todor Christov — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:33:20 +0000

Hello,

I will try to answer the question “Would the same test show Eastern Europeans reacting the same way as the Chinese and Japanese test subjects?” as far as I am an Eastern European.

In my opinion, we are very different from Chinese, but still there is a big brand confusion in my country. Even big and well known corporations practice brand extension (Nestle is the name which first comes to my mind), which to me is not right, but still they do it.

Sooner or later, a time will come when differentiation and focus will start playing more serious role in our local markets. Chinese do brand extension because they see the potential of doing very large sales volumes, and because they have some strong competitive advantages. In the future, when eventually those advantages are not so strong, Chinese will be forced to start thinking about focus, too.

By: olivier blanchard

olivier blanchard — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:29:56 +0000

Very interesting. Is this a nature vs. nurture question?

Are Americans more attracted to the singularity rather than the harmony because we are culturally trained to look for it?

I don’t know.

A brand that makes everything seems very BIG BROTHER to me. Remnants of Totalitarianism perhaps? (Uniformity is usually pretty big under that kind of system.) Would the same test show Eastern Europeans reacting the same way as the Chinese and Japanese test subjects?