The other day I was giving a talk on "How to build a Competitive brand" to a group of CEOs and one asked how come there were so few great Malaysian brands. I thought about for a second and then answered, "because companies here aren't willing to pay for branding"
Malaysian entreprenuers often think branding or advertising is easy and therefore be done in-house. There is that make-do mentality that is a double edged sword. On one hand, it makes us immensely creative in cutting corners and bending rules, but in the long run, these creative measures don't quite provide the foundation needed to anchor and create a long lasting brand that resonates beyond our shores. We are great do-ers and thrive on quick fixes and quick wins. We desperately need to see some results by the 1st quarter or within 3 months, hence we become a very sales driven culture of push, push, push as oppose to creating a brand centric pull culture.
