The growing emphasis on shareholder value will move up the Asian boardroom agenda and brand strategy will become one of the most prominent drivers of value in Asia Pacific.

Branding must be elevated to the boardroom level across Asian corporations and become more strategic with a top-management driven agenda.

Asian Brand Strategy is a business book which addresses the Asian boardrooms and management teams on how to create and manage strong brands = building Asian brand leadership leading to enhanced sustainable financial results and shareholder value.

The overall message of Asian Brand Strategy is that branding is not an option for most Asian companies across industries anymore. It is one of the most important factors for their long term survival and sustainable financial results. Specifically, the key messages are:

1. Branding is a boardroom discipline to be lead by the CEO
2. Brand marketing must be treated as a strategic investment rather than a cost - it has to move from the profit & loss statement to the balance sheet illustrating the value of the intangible asset and how that contributes to value creation
3. Branding is an organization wide process encompassing every function and stakeholder and is more than just advertising and promotional campaigns

Branding enhances shareholder value, it can become a catalyst for better leadership, it enables to drive a shared vision throughout the organisation, and it can help to balance short- and long-term perspectives and performance.

The book presents the Asian Brand Leadership model illustrating the paradigm shift Asian brands need to undertake to unleash their potential.

First, mindsets and practices need to change in the Asian boardroom. The book invites a complete shift in the way Asian boardrooms think of branding: from a tactical view to a long-term, strategic perspective, from fragmented marketing activities to totally aligned branding activities, from a vision of branding as the sole responsibility of marketing managers to branding as the most essential function of the firm led by the boardroom.

Second, this new perspective must be steeped into a more acute perspective on the consumer behaviour patterns. Asia is not a homogenous entity. Even more importantly, Asian countries are more and more traversed by cultural flows permeating the region: cinema, music and fashion trends that are present extend beyond national borders to capture the imagination of millions. Branding and brands do not operate in vacuum, but are closely linked to developments in society, to people and to cultures.

Third, managers wanting to succeed in Asia need to abandon the idea of an oriental Asia of the past. Asian consumers are all vying for an Asian type of modernity that has nothing to do with colonial imagery.

Fourth, to create iconic brands, Asian managers will have to become trendsetters. The perspective developed in this book is that, in order to be successful, Asian brands need to capture the spirit of the region, but they also need to lead the way by creating that spirit.

Finally, this shift can be achieved only if everybody in the company is convinced by the power of branding and if all strategies and actions are aligned around the brand. This must be led by the Asian boardroom.

This book is primarily targeted at the boardrooms and corporate management teams of Asian companies. It is also aimed at Western companies and their leaders, and provides insights about Asian branding from their perspective coming from the outside.

Given the style of the book and the concepts provided, it is also targeted at industry leaders, business managers, advertising specialists, brand consultants, students of marketing, advertising and branding, as well as readers generally interested in this topic.