Winners of Superbrand awards are hoping for better future

Winners of Superbrand awards are hoping for better future

Rudijanto, Contributor, Jakarta

Winners of the Superbrand Award certainly feel lucky to have
their companies included among the select group of businesses
with Superbrand status.

No doubt the award is a source of pride for its recipients.
Their hard work has received recognition from a third and
independent party with an international reputation.

"Basically, our management staff are proud and happy that PT
Asuransi Central Asia (ACA) has obtained Superbrand status," said
ACA's retail division manager Jakub Nugraha.

ACA is one of the 23 brands that received a Superbrand Award
last week. Other recipients are Acuvue, Aquaproof, Ayam Merak,
Berri, Baskin Robbins, Bimoli, Bank Muamalat, Bank Ekonomi,
Ciputra, Daia, Indofood, Infomedia, Indomie, Indomilk, JNE,
Nokia, Optik Tunggal, Sucofindo, SoKlin, Trac, Wings and Yellow
Pages.

ACA is an old player in the Indonesian insurance industry.
Founded in 1956 as Oriental NV, the company changed its name to
PT Asuransi Central Asia (ACA) in 1958. Currently, ACA is
included among the five biggest players in the Indonesian
insurance industry with 36 branches and 34 representative offices
throughout the country.

For ACA, the Superbrand status conferred by an independent
organization such as the Superbrand organization constitutes
recognition of the hard work of all of its employees and board of
managers in the past two years.

"Our company has been included among local companies that have
received recognition due to their quality service, consistency
and commitment in rendering the best for their clients. Moreover,
this recognition is given by a neutral independent party with a
good international reputation outside our organization," Jakub
said.

A similar reaction was expressed by another Superbrand Award
recipient, PT Infomedia Nusantara (Infomedia), the country's
publisher of the Yellow Pages, the Indonesian telephone
directory.

"We are happy to receive the Superbrand Award because it was
given by an external agency. They have awarded us Superbrand
status after seeing our good performance," says Infomedia's
president director M. Gatut Awantoro.

For Gatut, his company certainly deserves to receive such a
prestigious award from an international-based organization as the
company has developed into one of Indonesia's leading information
and communications services providers.

"Our Yellow Pages is the only telephone directory that has
been widely accepted by our customers and users. We have shown
good performance through our call center with several major
companies using our services," said Gatut.

Further proving his company's performance, he said the Yellow
Pages had been issued in full color in order to increase the
quality of advertisements. In addition, Infomedia has developed
its own vast distribution networks throughout the country and
issued Yellow Pages CDs.

Many Superbrand Award recipients consider their new status a
good start to entering the more competitive international market.

"For us, Superbrand is a trademark that we can use for
promoting our services to the market. Sucofindo will use the
award as momentum to enter into the international market," says
Zafar D. Idham, president director of Sucofindo.

Sucofindo has every reason to be proud of its new Superbrand
status, particularly as it receives it a few months short of its
50th year of operation in inspection, supervision and assessment
services.

"Being granted the award, we feel we are trusted as a national
brand that has vast experience and a good reputation. We hope
that the Superbrand status that we earned will strengthen our
position as a leading national brand and open up access to the
international market," says Zafar.

Sucofindo is Indonesia's first inspection company and a joint
venture enterprise between Indonesia and SGS SA -- one of the
world's leading inspection companies, which is based in
Switzerland.

Sucofindo's activities at present cover inspections in
agriculture, engineering and trade as well as trade facilities,
management collateral, certification of products, certification
of quality and environmental management systems, consultancy in
the investment sector and laboratory services.

Superbrand recipients are no doubt planning to reap more
benefits from the award. For instance, Jakub of ACA has revealed
a plan to announce the company's success in obtaining the award
to all employees, partners and customers, as one of the company's
achievements for 2005.

Furthermore, we will use the award as a momentum to kindle the
spirit, performance and professionalism of all of our employees
so that we will be more widely known as a trusted insurance
company," said Jakub.

While the award winners will do their best to use the award as
a momentum to boost their performance in delivering services or
products to customers, they also expect the organization granting
the award to do more than simply hand over a plaque, trophy or
certificate.

Aside from publishing the Superbrand Book containing data on
all the award winners, the Superbrand organization also commits
to doing public relations (PR) work on behalf of the recipients.

"Each company that receives the award already has its own PR
program that cannot be diverted or altered by the handing over of
the Superbrand Award. The organizer of the Superbrand Award has
to make a PR program to meet the expectations of the recipients,"
said a source in the Indonesian public relations industry who
requested anonymity.

Giving an example of the PR program, she said the Superbrand
organizers could forge partnerships with several media which
would publish special reports on the success story of each award
winner.

"It is not enough to publish the Superbrand Book that contains
the names and stories of the award winners as such a book will
only reach a limited audience. Without good publicity, the award
will not achieve its intended result," she says.

On the one hand, the Superbrand Award marks the start of a new
journey for award winners. On the other hand, the awarding of
Superbrand status must be accompanied by a good PR program.

Without the cooperation of the two sides -- namely the winners
and the award organizer -- the Superbrand Award will at best be
an additional logo to be printed on the winners' business cards
or simply a plague or trophy or certificate to be displayed in
the winners' offices.