SPEECH BY MR LEE YI SHYAN, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY AT THE SINGAPORE BRAND CONFERENCE 2009 AT MERITUS MANDARIN HOTEL SINGAPORE AT 9AM ON THURSDAY, 26 MARCH 2009

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning.

I would like to thank SBF for inviting me to be part of this conference to discuss branding and what it can do for our businesses.

Importance of Branding

Most of the time, as we speak of branding and brand value, we think of a product and services. This is natural as we observe on a daily basis, consumer’s decision in making purchases taking into account of what they perceive as one brand superior to another.

Sometime ago, I attended a talk by Carlos Ghosn, then the new CEO of Nissan Motors.He said the company studied the pricing strategy of Nissan cars versus competition in America. They found out that comparing an almost identical car between Nissan and Honda, feature-for-feature, consumers would only purchase a Nissan car if it were US$1,000 cheaper. This price premium, or the lack of it, he said, could be attributed to the brand premium his competitors enjoyed.

Brand value can also be applied at the national level. Let me illustrate with 3 examples:

·JurongIsland

·SuzhouIndustrial Park

·My meeting with Mubadala 2 days ago

When we speak of branding, many would immediately think of advertising and managing communications campaign across geographies. Communicating a brand creatively and efficiently is of course is important and an art itself, and the process of execution deserves great management attention.

However, I would also like to stress that good branding is a promise made good. A well-defined brand often evokes a set of emotive qualities that appeal to one’s aspirations. Products and services that enjoy good branding speak to their target customers. A strong brand also enhances and builds purposefully crafted perceptions in the mind of its stakeholders, thereby increasing mindshare, and eventually market share. It promises customer loyalty and provides immunity against price wars.

Beyond advertising, successful branding is built through behind-the-scene processes, hard work, consistency and finally validation by repeat customers. Customers will only begin to believe your brand after many good experiences.

Our local companies will need to build their capabilities, step up the quality of their products and services, and set their sights far and wide in order to weather this economic downturn. This groundwork must be firmly established now so that when the global economy recovers, our companies would have a headstart to rise to the occasion faster and stronger than their competitors. In order for Singapore companies to leverage on the opportunities that are to come, branding is essential for our companies to stand out from the competition.

BrandPact

You cannot build a brand overnight, just before you need it. Therefore, the Government has been promoting the use of branding as a long term strategic business capability buildup.

BrandPact, for example, is a joint initiative by IE Singapore and SPRING to help local companies meet their brand development needs.Since the launch of BrandPact in April 2005, over 6,000 companies have benefited from various BrandPact initiatives which include training workshops and use of brand assessment.Companies have in total received more than $17 million worth of co-funding support for brand development projects.

Even in diffult times like this, SMEs should remain focused on brand building. To assist our companies, BrandPact’s support has recently been revised upwards to a ceiling of 70% of companies’ commitment towards branding projects.With this increased funding, we hope that more companies would step forward to make use of the programme to build new strengths.

Conclusion

In summarizing the Top 100 Brands, BusinessWeek has this to say: “Regardless of your view of the world, in good times and bad, your brand is your company's most valuable asset. Understanding how your brand creates value for you is key to maintaining market leadership or establishing it in the first place. We continue to see an increasingly sophisticated outlook on managing brands, and a growing importance on understanding the drivers of brand value”.

In conclusion, therefore, I urge our companies pay serious attention to brand development as a strategic tool to grow their business and bringing them international. May I also wish everyone the best in your branding journey.

Thank you.