Big up the brand to take on the world

Malaysia – If you haven’t got a brand, you haven’t got a business, said Datuk Seri Ahmad Farid Ridzuan, Group CEO, Media Prima International (MPI), and the Global Brand Forum’s debut in Malaysia comes at the right time.

“It is now time to build Malaysian companies branding skills because brands will be the only unique difference between companies,” he said at a press conference where Media Prima Bhd (MPB) announced the line-up of speakers for the Dec 4 -5 event it is playing host to.

Among the luminaries confirmed to share their experiences with the expected 700 participants are Ivanka Trump, Youth marketing and techn branding guru Martin Lindstrom and founder of Flickr.com Stewart Butterfield.

Also slated to speak are retail icon and entrepreneur Sheikh Majed Al Sabah and Joanne Ooi, creative director of Shanghai Tang.

“Global Brand Forum Malaysia is the answer to the government’s call to develop strong brands in this country and will provide the inspiration and knowledge for companies that have committed themselves to growing beyond our borders,” Ahmad Farid added.

Karthik Siva, Chairman, Global Brand Forum said the theme of the event in Malaysia is “Creating leader brands” to place emphasis on branding efforts and educate and inspire its participants on what it takes to create leadership brands.

“The future for Asia and Malaysia is brands. The biggest challenge that Asian businesses face are they do not believe in the intangibles.

“The tangibles are more valuable to them when in fact branding – an intangible element – is the most powerful thing.

“There are many big companies in Malaysia but there are small brands. When we look at the top 10 brands in Asia, seven or eight out of them are Western brands.

“This is very dangerous because this would mean the West will be eating our brands and if we don’t start to wake up and shake up, we will be in a lot of trouble,” he added.

Karthik also said he was impressed at the competitive media organizations coming together in support of the Global Brand Forum in Malaysia.

New Straits Times' CEO Datuk Syed Faizal Albar, the Star's managing editor P. Gunasegaram, the Edge advertising and marketing manager Chandran Ravie, Astro Awani's representative Measat COO Henry Tan, and the Malaysian Reserve were announced as media partners of the forum which will be housed at the Palace of the Golden Horses.