Building a sustainable brand key to success: experts

Nokia as a mobile phone brand has gone down to nowhere now from the by far market leader a decade ago. Motorola, another brand that made its first Android smartphone in 2009 and its first Android tablet in 2011, has lost the markets to others.

On the other hand, Apple and Google have become the iconic brands globally within a span of a decade.

Apple and Google got extremely successful because of their innovation, quality, premium services and marketing strategy while a lack of these efforts to attract buyers have led to the near disappearance of Nokia and Motorola.

Experts from home and abroad made the observations at the eighth Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF) seminar on “Creating human connection in the age of digital” at Le Méridien Dhaka yesterday.

Around 300 corporate professionals attended the event that also coincided with the BBF’s 12th anniversary.

They said the markets are now highly competitive so building a sustainable brand had become one of the first priorities for business organisations.

“Product innovation and quality are keys to building sustainable brand equity,” said Prem N Shamdasani, associate professor of the National University of Singapore.

He said customers should be the main focus along with other factors of an organisation for building brand leadership.

Shamdasani said branding was very important for making an oragnisation sustainable and profitable.

According to him, branding equity is not established with cheap products, so businesses should focus on cost-effective quality products.

Nazmul Karim, executive vice president of Prime Bank, said social media could now help an organisation build its brand image.

Solaiman Alam, head of digital at Grameenphone, said organisations should keep in mind customers’ demand and what they were paying for.

Zakia Zerin, head of digital marketing, e-commerce and customer engagement at Nestlé Bangladesh, and Tanzeen Ferdous, marketing director of Unilever Bangladesh, also spoke.

Earlier in the inaugural session, Shariful Islam, founder and managing director of the BBF, said in spite of the future being anything but, there are many who could imagine or predict it.

“Now the question is how we can prepare for such a future. Bangladesh Brand Forum’s next phase of journey will be to guide and shape our thinking and skills around that,” he said.

BBF Director Nazia Andaleeb Preema and Chief Advisor Syed Ferhat Anwar also shared their thoughts at the event.

Syed Saad Andaleeb, former vice chancellor of Brac University; Reazuddin Al Mamun, managing director of Epyllion Group; Ashraf Bin Taj, president of the Marketing Society of Bangladesh; Mahzabin Ferdous, head of marketing of IPDC Finance, and Yasir Azman, deputy CEO of Grameenphone, also spoke among others.