Tuesday, November 06, 2007

What's in a name?


"The challenges of globalising Malaysian herbal brands"
From here on, I will be writing more on a joint research project on building local brands, focusing on herbal-based cosmetics as case studies.

4 comments:

Mat Salo said...

In this day and age, branding is everything. Last time I was home I visited a friend somewhere in Karak where he bottles Roselle (syrup) which he grows himself. Actually he's one of the more 'successful' ones so he's been getting some government aid. His christened his cordial 'Yuzzelle' - a derivative of his name - and I feel he's hit some sort of a ceiling. It's a great product and a hit in the pasar minggus and local agri fairs but that's it. Branding is the only way to take this guy further? Care to help, QB?

I think this is where we lag behind. Unless of course giants like Danone or Nestle notices us and buys us out..

BaitiBadarudin said...

Mat Salo, you're absolutely right.
Branding is the magic key that turns product development, management and marketing strategies around in big corporations.
It's the small and medium enterprises that really needs help in terms of creating brand recognition and recall in the cluttered marketplace.
I managed to visit Herbal Asia 2007 on the last day and stopped at a Rosselle booth, but may have missed 'Yuzzelle' since it was an hour before closing.
The name travels well across cultures and borders plus the teen/youth market would be able to ID with the brand name, if they are his target audience.
Distribution channel is another factor too, but I could go on and on. If you would give me his contact number, I would be glad to have him as my first client. In fact, I would even do pro bono if he doesn't have the budget for brand consultation.
Thanks for prodding me to continue with the topic, and not just stop at the teaser.

Hanafi Mohd Noor said...

Hi, very interesting. I would like to read more on your research as his might help our local entrepreneurs.
www.hanafionline.com

BaitiBadarudin said...

hanafi mohd noor,
thank you. I will be more diligent in my posting on the research project. It is indeed my intention to help local SMEs in whatever way that I can.