Batey offers Asian branding tips in book

SINGAPORE: Ian Batey - the founder of Batey Ads and the man behind the Singapore Girl icon - has published his first book, 'Asian Branding: A Great Way to Fly'. Billed as "the first definitive guide to building brands in Asia", the book charts the rise of Asian brands as they battled their Western and Japanese counterparts, and, in some cases, emerged on top. Batey also recounts the inside story behind the development of Singapore Airlines' Singapore Girl campaign. The book's title borrows from SIA's tagline, 'A great way to fly'. Even as he detailed the strides made by Asian brands, the respected adman also cautioned that Asian companies would lose out "big time" to their Western counterparts unless they put more resources into developing their brands. American and European organisations owned about 90 per cent of the world's top brands, with the remainder held by Japanese and, to a lesser extent, Korean companies, he said. "If you take away the Japanese and the Koreans, there's really nothing else from this region in the top 50." Batey cited confidence as the main problem. "There's a sense that no-one can be bigger than an American brand. This is untrue. If a programme is put in place with appropriate resources, milestones and reviews, I am confident that we will see at least 20 Asian brands, not including Japan and Korea, in the world's top 50 brands within the next two decades." Batey, who earlier this year relinquished day-to-day operational control of his agency to concentrate on macro branding issues of major clients including SIA, said another problem was that most Asian companies saw themselves as manufacturers rather than brands.

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