What's stopping RI brands from competing globally

What's stopping RI brands from competing globally

Michael J. Webdell, Jakarta

Nike, Samsung, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Sony: These are just a
few brands popular to people across the world. In shopping malls
from Jakarta to London, and New York to Seoul, they are symbols
of a lifestyle consumers pay premium to be part of. But whether
one pays US$50 for their Hilfigers in Los Angeles or 10,000 yen
($91) in Tokyo, many of these products have something more in
common than a brand name or a high price tag: Many of them are
made in Indonesia.

Of course, there's nothing shocking about that. For years,
Indonesia has been manufacturing the products branded by some of
the world's most prestigious companies. Rather, with the
country's clear capability to manufacture such highly sought-
after goods, it is puzzling why Indonesia lacks any globally-
known brands of its own.

To be fair, Indonesia has its share of strong domestic brands.
Aqua, Sampoerna, Indomie, Hoka Hoka Bento, and Lion Air clearly
demonstrate Indonesian capability for developing and managing
successful brand identity programs. So, if Indonesian business
has the capability to manufacture such quality products, and has
at least a general understanding of branding as a value-added
marketing tool, where do Indonesian companies fall short in
creating their own global brands?

Socially speaking, Indonesia is at a disadvantage for creating
global brands. The modern concepts of branding and marketing are
a creation of capitalism. And though Indonesia can be said a
grand contributor to capitalism's development, the country's part
has been largely limited to supplier.

Of course, suppliers of commodities and low-cost products are
a very important part of our economy; and I am not attempting to
discount them. But after centuries of learning its well-defined
place in the economic food chain, excluded from the value-added
aspects of branding, many Indonesian businesses lack the profound
knowledge and confidence to undertake this initiative. Many don't
realize they could ever attempt such a thing as creating a global
brand.

However, the good news is the knowledge and skills required in
creating and managing an internationally successful brand can be
learned. And, in my opinion, the lack of confidence for marketing
brands globally is unfounded. This opinion is based on my
previously outlined points that Indonesia does produce the high-
quality goods marketed by many of today's global brand leaders,
and that Indonesia has many successful domestic brands. With a
little initiative, these resources can be successfully applied
internationally.

Perception of what Indonesian business can and can't do is the
real gremlin in creating global brands. It is always shocking to
me when business and government give into the notion that the
country's slower performance on exports is helplessly related to
issues like anti-Muslim sentiment, or inclusion on "travel
warning" lists.

These issues don't need to consume Indonesia's brand identity
when the country has so much to offer. Presenting them as the
cause of current economic conditions is an inaccurate
rationalization that plays into negative stereotypes and takes
our focus away from discovering new economic growth
opportunities. These are mental obstacles by which business does
not have to be stymied.

In my experience, business is business. As far as foreign
corporate buyers are concerned, they just want a good price,
quality products, excellent service, and an easy, safe
transaction. Where the end consumer is concerned, unless they are
buying a cultural-specific or country-specific product such as
French perfume, they don't really care where a product is made.

A prime example is Tommy Hilfiger who used the slogan "An
American Original" to support their brand identity. I am not
aware of many Hilfiger products that are actually manufactured in
The United States. But with annual sales of about $1.9 billion in
2003, clearly the power of Hilfiger's brand is what sells his
products. Whether they are made in the United States, Indonesia,
or any other country doesn't really matter.

Hypothetically, an Indonesian company might do just as well
creating and marketing its own "original American" brand. We just
need the vision, like Tommy Hilfiger had, to create something as
unique and wonderful.

Indonesian business must start studying the success of global
brands and figuring out how to start participating themselves. By
creating new brands of their own, or adapting suitable Indonesian
brands to international markets, they can create greater sales
for their companies and increase exports for the country while
keeping a greater share of the Indonesian-made products' end
value in Indonesia.

But we all have to get past this engrained image of what we
think Indonesia is and start making it what it can be. It is up
to Indonesian investors and business to gain the knowledge, take
the initiative, and realize that Indonesian brands can be
globally successful too.

The writer is a marketing and management consultant. He may be
contacted at mjwebdell@aol.com.