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.
