Build strong local brands before going regional, warns Kotler
Build strong local brands before going regional, warns Kotler
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Foreign bottled mineral water was served to panelists speaking at
an ASEAN marketing forum in Jakarta on Thursday.
As participants at the forum were discussing how to make a
local brand recognizable regionally and internationally, the
bottles in front of them could have served as an example.
The question would be why choose a foreign brand when host
Indonesia has many local mineral water brands attractive enough
to prompt giant multinational company Danone Group to acquire a
major stake in one.
Lack of strong marketing strategy perhaps?
American marketing professor Philip Kotler highlighted that
companies wanting to go regional should start by working to gain
full attention from local consumers before expanding.
"Build strong brands in your country that deliver to the
targeted market before coming in to another country," Kotler
said, adding that going global should be done gradually.
Kotler co-founded the Philip Kotler center for ASEAN marketing
with Indonesian marketing expert Hermawan Kartajaya. The center
was officially opened at the same forum by ASEAN secretary-
general Ong Keng Yong.
It aims to provide support for the enhancement of ASEAN brands
toward the integration of its 10 member countries into one single
European-style economic community.
The organization aims to see a single market of over 500
million people in goods, services and investments within the
region by 2020.
Currently, total trade from and in the region amounts to
US$720 billion annually, with a combined gross domestic product
of $737 billion.
In 2003, intra-ASEAN trade accounted for only 23 percent, or
about US$84 billion, of the regional grouping's 2003 exports.
When the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) concept was first
introduced in 1993, regional trade accounted for 18 percent of
exports.
According to ASEAN Secretariat data, regional exports to the
rest of the world increased to US$363 billion in 2003 from $321
billion in 2002, lower than the $387 billion reached in 2001.
In comparison, regional trade within the European Union
accounted for 75 percent of total trade, while regional trade
reached 35 percent in Mercosur -- a South American economic group
comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and
Bolivia.
Ong said that local and global marketing strategies were no
longer valid for local players and multinationals, and thus a
regional marketing strategy had to be developed to enable
regional companies to compete better.
"The center is an important feature for the ASEAN marketing
industry to help develop ASEAN as a brand," Ong said.
Could it perhaps help create strategies so that a locally or
regionally produced mineral water is served at a global forum?