When one mentions Thailand, one usually thinks of the pristine beaches of Phuket, the exquisite silk of Jim Thompson or the friendly Thai Airways. Hardly, if at all, is a wine brand associated with Thailand. Siam Winery pledges to change that and give the world and Thais an Asian wine brand to be proud of.

Siam Winery, a Thai company, was founded in 1982 by Chalerm Yoovidhya. The mission was to create a world class Thai Wine which could complement the renowned and much liked Thai cuisine.

Twenty three years later, the company is cruising ahead with greater plans, having been accepted in Thailand and having launched its brand in US, UK and Europe. Siam Winery is South East Asia's largest winery with a capacity of 4 million liters. The brand uses indigenous grapes and combines modern winemaking techniques to produce high quality wine and grape-based beverages. The company grows and buys grapes in its two main areas, the floating vineyards of the Chao Phraya Delta and the mountainous vineyards at Pak Chong. There is also a new vineyard site and winery being planned near Hua Hin to attract local and foreign travelers.

Over the years Siam Winery has launched three main brands: Monsoon Valley, Sabai and Spy. Each brand of wine has been given a distinct composition, unique taste and a defined usage situation.

Monsoon Valley brand is positioned as the wine that complements spicy food. With a portfolio of white wine (Malaga Blanc), red wine (Pokdum) and rose wine (Monsoon Valley), the brand offers a good variety.

The Sabai brand is positioned as the cool brand in the portfolio. Sabai in Thai means to chill. By playing around the word Sabai, the brand has been positioned as the one which embodies the Thai practice of chilling and relaxing. Sabai is truly an exquisite beverage made by blending the wines from the red hibiscus flower, which is known for its relaxing properties and Malaga Blanc, the white grape.

The Spy brand was launched almost twenty years ago to introduce locals to a fermented beverage. This brand has been very well received by customers who were seeking an alternative to mere beer and liquor.

The Siam Winery brand is on the right path to building an enduring Thai wine brand. The company names their emerging products "New Latitude Wines", because grapes can now be grown in regions previously thought unfit. In an industry where the French and Italian wines have ruled since centuries, a new brand from a least expected country has managed to make a mark within wine brands. With the right commitment towards innovation and product quality combined with a dedicated approach to build a strong brand, Siam Winery could end up as yet another emerging brand that customers would associate with the Kingdom of Thailand.

There are several stakeholders concerned with brand equity, such as the firm, the customer, the distribution channels, media and other stakeholders like the financial markets and analysts, depending on the type of company ownership. But ultimately it is the customer who is the most critical component in defining brand equity as it is his/her choices that determine the success or failure of the company and the brand.

Customer knowledge about the brand, the perceived differences and its effects on purchase behavior and decisions lies at the heart of brand equity. The knowledge and associations attached to the brand result in choices which have a direct impact on the brand's financial performance and shareholder value.

Brand equity is the combined measure of brand strength and consists of three sets of metrics: knowledge, preference and financial as has been explained in Asian Brand Strategy. Each of the measures under these three metrics is critical and the boardroom must ensure that the brand portfolio scores high in each of these parameters to optimize the financial outcome from strong brands.

Knowledge metrics measures a brand's awareness and associations through the many stages of recognition, aided, unaided and top of mind recall. Similarly the functional and emotional associations of a brand are important drivers of brand equity. It is crucial for brands to score high on both awareness and association attributes to establish and sustain their presence in the market place.

Preference metrics measure a brand's competitive position in the market and how it benchmarks to competing brands. Customers pass through various levels of preference towards the brand which ranges from mere awareness and familiarity to strong loyalty and recurrent revenues from the customer base. A strong brand has the brand equity to move its customers through the preference funnel towards loyalty.

Financial metrics measure a brand's monetary value through the various parameters of market share, price premium a brand commands, the revenue generation capabilities of a brand, the transaction value, the lifetime value of a brand and the rate at which brands sustains growth. These measures facilitate a company to estimate an accurate financial value of brand equity.

A comprehensive evaluation of brand equity involves measuring all the above three metrics as it ensures that the brand and its strength is valued in totality.

In today's globalized world where global brands quickly adopt to local demands in order to gain customer acceptance, being a local brand seems like waging a losing battle. But one Asian brand has proved this wrong by beating a global giant flat!

Jollibee is the brand pride of the Philippines. The brand has been so hugely successful that even the mighty McDonald's has been forced to copy Jollibee. Jollibee was started in 1975 as a two brand ice cream parlor by a small time entrepreneur Tony Tan. Jollibee gradually expanded its product portfolio to venture into the burger business. From 2 outlets in 1975, the brand has come a long way and today has more than 400 outlets in Philippines alone and 24 outlets in 7 countries including the US, China and Hong Kong.

A whopping 69% choose Jollibee compared to a mere 16% for McDonald's of the entire fast food population in the Philippines.

What is the secret behind Jollibee's success? Many factors have contributed to the rapid and sustained success. The most important one is Jollibee's in-depth consumer knowledge of the Filipino taste buds. When McDonald's entered the Philippines, it offered its standard menu to the Filipinos. Jollibee was quick to offer customized menu that suited Filipino's tastes. That was the starting point. Jollibee added friendly staff and service around its core products. The company created a family ambience in all of the outlets as it realized that a Filipino family revolves around its children. On top of this was the fact that Jollibee was a home grown brand, owned and managed by Filipinos. This created the strong emotional bond between the fast food brand Jollibee and its loyal customers.

By combining excellent service, a pleasant ambience with an enticing menu, the Jollibee brand has been able to leverage its home grown status to the hilt.

Taj Group of Hotels is India's largest hotel group and the company operates in three major segments of the hospitality sector: luxury, business and leisure. Historically, the Taj Group has used the Taj name for all its operations to leverage the brand equity commanded by the name 'Taj'. As the Taj Group expands to other locations outside India, the Taj brand is playing an increasing role of driving revenues.

Similar is the story with Oberoi Hotels which is an Indian brand associated with ultra luxury hotels. Founded in 1934, Oberoi manages 30 hotels and 5 luxury cruises under the Oberoi and Trident brands. All the hotels owned by the company across the many segments in India operate under the Oberoi brand name.

The usual trend in the international hospitality industry is to have distinct brands for each segment that a hotel group operates in. This strategy ensures that the brand equity is not diluted when the brand enters the business segment or economy hotels segment. But the Taj and Oberoi brands have not treaded this path till now.

But lately, these companies have realized the advantages of separating the premium parent brand names of Taj and Oberoi from all operations and to restrict the brand names only to ultra premium hotel properties.

Taj Group plans to add around 12 hotels in the next three years in the business hotel segment. The company has decided to follow a sub-brand strategy where by the business hotels will run under a separate hotel brand name but endorsed by the Taj brand. Taj Group also plans to use its Gateway brand to bolster up the budget hotel segment.

In a similar move, the Oberoi Group has removed the Oberoi brand names from six of its hotels which are not luxury hotels. Simultaneously, it has brought all the luxury palace-hotels previously called 'villas' under the Oberoi brand to convey the brand spirit and strengthen the brand equity.

This strategy ensures that Taj and Oberoi preserve their brand equity and also facilitates the expansion to other segments by endorsing the sub-brands with their parent brand names. With the Indian travel and tourism industry expected to grow at an annual rate of 8.8% to US$90.4 billion in 2015, these brand maneuvers become very important to ensure the famous Indian hospitality brands are up to the global challenges.

Royal Selangor is a classic example of a brand that combines the Asian heritage with global aspirations for growth. Started almost 130 years ago as Selangor Pewter, it became Royal Selangor in 1992, after a royal charter from the erstwhile Sultan of Selangor in Malaysia. Even though pewter lacks the allure of gold or silver, Royal Selangor has been able to capture the attention of customers worldwide through its innovative designs, high quality and by nurturing its brand relevance to customers.

By leveraging on historic and contemporary designs, Royal Selangor has maintained a certain aura around the brand. It has remained relevant to the times and launched new designs that appeal to the younger crowd. The brand has been elevating a non-luxury product beyond just a commodity.

Royal Selangor has been an aggressive acquirer of brands. In 1987, the company acquired the 300 year old Englefields of London that made Crown and Rose pewter. In 1993, Royal Selangor acquired Comyns, one of the oldest silver smiths in the world along with its treasure of over 35,000 drawings. Lastly, Canada's largest pewter maker - Seagull Pewter - was bought into the portfolio in 2002. These bold brand acquisitions have enabled the Royal Selangor brand to establish a firm foothold in international markets.

Royal Selangor is a family controlled organization and has managed to build a strong international brand with a balanced combination of innovative designs and high quality products. The brand has managed the clever blending of its unique heritage and product expertise with acquisitions abroad to establish a strong brand. This illustrates brand acquisition as a feasible growth strategy for Asian corporations.

The Western world has for long had the flamboyant CEOs promoting their brands from the front. Sir Richard Branson and Steve Jobs are the two prominent names that come to mind. Though Asia has not had its share of CEO brand ambassadors for long, things are changing fast across the region.

Vijay Mallya, the flamboyant CEO of United Breweries - the company that owns the Kingfisher brand - is one of the most flamboyant CEOs in Asia. Vijay Mallya believes in leading his brand from the front by leveraging his personality.

Vijay Mallya is referred to as India's Richard Branson. A great part of the personality of the Kingfisher brand is based on Mallya's personality. He is credited with having single handedly changed the image of his beer brand from a commodity to a lifestyle brand. The Kingfisher brand commands a 29% share of the beer market in India and is sold in over 52 countries.

Vijay Mallya has built a reputation for splurging his money in the public. He is the key sponsor to many of India's top derby championships, he owns a yacht once owned by Elizabeth Taylor, flies a personal Boeing business jet, owns super stylish homes in London, US, Dubai and India. Vijay Mallya is a diehard party animal, and is seen as the personification of a luxurious life!

Vijay Mallya's associations with the rich, trendy and the luxurious have rubbed on his business venture and the brands. Similarly to Richard Branson, he recently launched Kingfisher Airlines, which draws a lot of its brand equity from Mallya himself.

Vijay Mallya is a classic example of how Asian CEOs can lead their brands by being the most vocal ambassadors of their brands to build and sustain brand equity.

Samsung has created a strong brand around innovation, cutting edge technology and world class design. True to its brand image, Samsung resorted to a design competition to excite customers and involve the brand's community about its upcoming MP3 range of electronic gadgets. To boost the Samsung brand's hip image amongst the younger crowd, Samsung asked students to offer their concepts for a MP3 design. The idea resonated strongly among the student community to such an extent that Samsung received a whopping 2000 designs for this contest.

Samsung, by resorting to such activities achieves two main benefits. Firstly, it reinforces Samsung's strong connection to the brand community by hooking up youngsters early on to the brand to create brand excitement. Secondly, Samsung reinforces its brand image of always being on the forefront of innovation and design.

In a cut-throat market of branded consumer electronics, these innovative marketing methods to involve the brand community offer great leverage to sustain long-term brand equity. The Samsung design contest drives home the point that a strong brand always involves the community in its brand building efforts to strengthen brand equity beyond traditional brand communication and media channels.

Asia is still one of the world's biggest providers of commodities. At the same time, Asian manufacturers mostly produce for other companies and the majority of these products are therefore non-branded. In other words, volume products without personalities, values and distinct faces. The largest part of the financial value is still captured by the manufacturers' customers primarily driven by strong marketing and branding programs.

What is the evidence for this? There are only a few global brands originating from Asian companies (disregarding Japan and Korea as they are a different breed) compared to brands galore within almost all industries originating from Western companies. The time has come to change this somewhat historic and outdated trend. Read more >>