Abstract:

This paper confronts the commonly held view that building long-term brand equity is basically a matter of brand 'imagery' and 'positioning' and that where global brands have succeeded in Asia, it is chiefly because they have well developed 'global' brand images. Utilising ACNielsen's Winning Brands brand health database (in particular its data on 1,700+ FMCG brands), the paper examines the actual drivers of brand equity. In particular it investigates how 'brand associations' relate to other elements of brand equity, and how brand differentiation is actually driven. It is argued that the differences between the performance of local and international brands implies that brand building involves more than simply 'positioning' the brand correctly in relation to competitors. The finding that awareness and consideration of brands plays a crucial role in differentiating between brands, perhaps independently of brand imagery, is in line with recent work on consumer decision-making that points out the importance in consumer decisions of simple heuristics like 'familiarity'. The author also contends that the findings provide clues to why global brands have not always succeeded in displacing local brands in this region.