On the world map, Asia is the largest continent. In global markets however, Asian brands have a big gap to close.



Title: Asian Brand Strategy: How Asia Builds Strong Brands
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Author: Martin Roll


In 2004, Interbrand and Business Week conducted a study to measure the financial value of worldwide brands. It revealed that only four of the top brands originated from Asia. Out of the four, Samsung from Korea stood out as an ambitious brand of rapid growth while Japan dominated the foremost Asian brands with Sony, Honda and Toyota.

Like many international onlookers, author and brand guru Martin Roll believes that Asian business today holds a wealth of potential. Given the sheer size and volume, Asia is expected to build many more prominent brands that can seize higher financial value from better price premiums and deeper customer loyalty.



Asian Brand Strategy is targeted at Asian business leaders and Western observers. Roll embarks on an in-depth analysis into the Asian brand leadership and looks into its lag behind its counterparts from the West. His search takes him deep into the heart of branding and its role in a business strategy.

The traditional Asian trading mindset and business approach have discouraged brand investment. Branding is misunderstood as merely a pretty face of a logo. Before Asian companies maximize the tool, they need to understand that marketing is an investment that drives shareholder value rather than just an expensive exercise.

All is not lost. “Asia is a region where branding as a strategic discipline is work in progress,” said Roll, founder and CEO of VentureRepublic, a strategic advisory firm that specializes in branding.



Asian Brand Strategy discusses the stumbling blocks and frameworks primed for brand building and brand alignment. No textbook is complete without models and charts and they punctuate throughout the 254-page book. The brand management model outlines the establishment, management and evaluation of strong brands in six steps. Most notably, the touch-point process illustrates the importance of managing interactions to shape and sharpen the brand experience and with the example of an airline company, Roll explains further how the system can be developed and implemented.

Corporate management can use the brand equity model to benchmark objectives and performances, of both its brand and competitors’. After all, know yourself and your enemy to win a hundred battles. Who is to argue with Sun Tzu and his formidable Art of War?



Success stories make such compelling case studies and in this regard, it is evident Asia is no ignorant fish out of the water — Singapore Airlines leads the list of exemplary models, which includes the likes of beauty company Shiseido and luxury resort Amanresorts.

With over 15 years of experience under his belt, Roll discusses the pros and cons of different brand growth strategies and makes suggestions how Asian brands can be a challenge to the West. For starters, Asia is a continent of different countries enriched with a legacy of distinctive histories, cultures mindsets and practices. He sees a need to leverage on these to develop opportunities for robust growth.



When he points out that Asian culture shouldn’t be viewed as a homegenous region but a mosaic of cultures; not exotic but modern urban; not separate but connected; no longer invaded by American cultures but has a great prominence of Asian images and music, Roll hits the nail on the head — the agenda for this year’s Asean Business and Investment Summit calls for closer regional integration.

Consumer brands notwithstanding, Roll fascinating with a chapter on country branding in Asia, delving into the hardly talked-about subject with much aplomb. It is intriguing how each country crafts a brand evocative of its national identity and character.



Uncanny it is to examine Asian Brand Strategy at a time when the ASEAN turns 40. The symbol representing ASEAN strikes a resounding chord. Truly, there doesn’t seem to be a more fitting icon to unite Asia than the rice stalk.

The same holds true for branding. Both are highly valued assets — rice is the most important crop in Asia and brand management is essential to achieve sustained success — and both require labor-intensive process to bear fruit.



Asian companies that have been downplaying the importance of branding have to face the fact that low cost is losing its a competitive edge as cutthroat competition intensifies. Brand investment presents itself not as an alternative to stay on top of the game, but a resistant strategy that weathers the ups and downs in volatile markets. Just as tenacious, rice can thrive practically anywhere. Even in the age of globalization, it remains the staple food to Asians and a grain that is no stranger to Western palates too.

Roll personifies the brand of Thailand (“Amazing Thailand”) as “a gawping backpacking tourist” that has developed into “a young, urban professional looking for ‘something different’,” which echoes the nascent journey of Asian branding.

After Asian Brand Strategy, aspirants await the dawn of a new business landscape as foretold by Roll, and towkays might see a strange significance in a backpacking tourist or a young, urban professional enjoying a plate of rice.

I know I would.

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