How fast can Asian brands rise?
Jack Yan makes some very insightful observations about the progress of brand thinking on the Asian mainland, and how it’s 
affected by social, cultural, political, economic, and national factors. He focuses on Malaysia, but discusses how quickly developing Asian economies may be expected to adopt the long view of brands, where customer context is king. It’s a big leap from being the “factory to the world” to being “brand leader to the world.”
The technology wildcard in brands
What isn’t clear (yet) is the extent that new online technologies may actually accelerate the rise of Asian brands, as least to get them into the average brand ballpark. Theoretically, tech innovation might compress what historically took several generations into one, through the web, broadband, growing WiFi, and online innovations such as YouTube, MySpace, etc. Progress will be fastest where political freedoms and open communications thrive. Perhaps smaller Asian nations with democratic traditions can carve out brand leadership roles.
Politics can compromise brands
Progress won’t be even. As Jack notes in another post, China’s recent actions to censor the blogosphere are not only bad internally, they will also impede China’s progress toward developing customer-centric brands for the world economic stage. Unwittingly, they may be creating a “brand gap” that other nations may step in to fill.
August 8th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
Thank you for the links, Brian! The web will indeed accelerate the process, Brian—primarily because of its accessibility. People will master the techniques because of exposure to western branding methods, but, more importantly, they will be able to re-create, at least on the surface, the visual cues that impress consumers. Doing is a far better learning tool than being told what to do—and the web is such an accessible medium that allows the former.
August 10th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
It’s going to be a whole new world of brands out there, with competition from every corner.